Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - September 20, 2005
Prega Govender

Mathebula, 19, is among 380 orphans living on the doorstep of South Africa's top game reserve, Kruger National Park. Although the park attracts millions of rands in foreign revenue annually, it is surrounded by crippling poverty.

The orphans - as well as another 200 people living inside the park - rely on a home-based care centre, Divuseni, for food.

Mathebula - one of 48 orphans from child-headed households in the dusty village of Somerset - lives in a one-roomed mud house with his 16-year-old brother, Lucas.

Apart from a few tattered clothes hanging from a crudely fashioned clothesline in the room, their only possessions are a bed and a battered trunk.

Said Mathebula: "We go to bed hungry on most days. Wednesdays are the best days because we get soup and bread."

The Mathebulas also receive donations such as vegetables from the garden Divuseni planted to feed hungry people. In return, the brothers irrigate the garden over weekends. "We also rely on the goodwill of neighbours but life is very hard," said Mathebula.

Divuseni's co-ordinator, Constance Mashego, said she was inspired to help patients with HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, asthma and diabetes after losing nine family members to Aids. Another seven members have full-blown Aids.

Mashego - a lay councillor at the Skukuza clinic -û said patients inside the park got soup and bread on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Mashego said she was trying to reach out to those who had contracted HIV: "People are scared of HIV and don't want to talk about it." A total of 83 new HIV cases have been reported to her clinic since January.

She said at least 18 Kruger employees, mostly labourers, have died of Aids-related illnesses since 2003.

The park allows her unrestricted use of office facilities and also assists her with transport. The park also bought farming implements and seedlings to help sustain the vegetable garden. Skukuza's restaurant and the Skukuza Park Shop donate food.

William Mabasa, the head of communications at Kruger, said the park paid R16000 last year to train eight care-givers. "Constance and her team are doing a fantastic job. We do have HIV patients and other patients with diabetes," he said.

But the centre does not have a steady source of income and Mpumalanga's Health Department has not paid Masego her lay councillor's salary of R1000 since February. The 18 care-givers who help her last got their stipends in February last year.

Provincial health department spokesman Mpho Gabashane said the non-payment of stipends would be investigated.

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* Anyone willing to help should call Constance Mashego on 072 696 7040, or Susan Sibuyi, who runs the Mkhuhlu centre, 35kms away, on 084 820 6891.

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