Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - December 4, 2005
Futhi Ntshingila

"Sometimes I get 20 death certificates in a day of people who bank with us. I began to think about the children of these people, who die at the peak of their lives, young people around the ages of 30 or 35. I would see the client today and the next day they are gone. It just broke my heart," said Grobler.

Vusi Nkosi, the community development departmental head of iDumbe Municipality, estimates that more than half of the 82000 population living in Paulpietersburg is HIV positive.

He said the disease has cut through the racial divide in the community and forced rich and poor to work together in the fight against HIV/Aids. Grobler was moved to help the community of Bilanyoni, a village near Paulpietersburg, to open a day-care centre to look after Aids orphans.

Another unsung hero of the area is 70-year-old Sponono Vundla-Kunene, who quietly started using his old-age pension money to feed 120 orphans in the area.

This week a Grade 7 orphan's letter to his dead mother brought tears to many at the prize-giving ceremony at Paulpietersburg Primary School.

Magic Mbatha, 13, who collected awards for the highest marks in mathematics, Afrikaans and creative writing, and was named the school's Sports Boy of the Year, wrote: "I was watching TV and I saw the most terrifying thing ever: thousands of people were dead, killed by HIV.

"That night I couldn't sleep or eat. If there's someone called God or Jesus, why are they not helping because they are capable of doing anything; why are they not helping?"

Headmaster Vernon Eva said he was afraid that the death of Mbatha's mother could affect his excellent progress at school.

"I am very concerned about Magic. He is an excellent pupil, but he is finished with us now and I am afraid his spirit will be broken if he doesn't get to a good high school that will nurture his talent."

Mbatha is one of 18 children at the school who were orphaned this year. The school is subsidising 25% of its pupils after they lost their parents to Aids.

Magic's family is now headed by his 19-year-old brother, Mlungisi. The brothers share a modest house with three sisters.

Eva said the prevalence of HIV/Aids in the area has forced him and his staff to get deeply involved in the lives of their pupils as death has become almost a daily occurrence among children at the school.

Eva said even the brightest among his pupils now faced a bleak future as HIV/Aids ravages the community.

"Two years ago I began to notice that I was losing children from the school, only to find out that their parents had died and they could not afford to attend the school," said Eva.

He said one little girl came to school without her mother's signature on her homework. When asked why, she said her mother had gone to the mortuary.

"Her mother had been sick for a while. The night she died, the little girl went to sleep next to her to comfort her, but by morning she was gone."

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