A former miner who knows his way around a toolbox is the only wheelchair mechanic in the Eastern Cape public sector.
Sunny Tapolisi started at Frere Hospital in 2010 after a decade of working in the mines.
He is now a vital member of the hospital’s occupational therapy department.
“Our people really struggle where they are based, especially in rural areas where there is hardly any transport. I really enjoy bringing the wheelchairs to them,” he said.
Tapolisi does outreach work in King William’s Town, Mooiplaas, Dimbaza, Duncan Village, Tsholomnqa and Mdantsane.
Having completed his training, he is now paying it forward by training others in the departments of physiotherapy and occupational therapy in Duncan Village, Cecilia Makiwane, Grey and Bhisho hospitals and Mthatha.
Saturday Dispatch accompanied Tapolisi and occupational therapist Tanita Smith to deliver a wheelchair to 85-year-old Nodabephi Ziwani in Duncan Village on Thursday.
Ziwani, a farmer from Tsholomnqa, suffered a stroke in 2003.
Her daughter, Thelma Ziwani, said: “This wheelchair will assist her a lot to feed her pigs and chickens and she will be able to navigate her way around on her own.”
Back at Frere’s occupational therapy department, patients were being assessed to see if they needed a wheelchair.
Senior manager Anastacia Scholtz said: “If we don’t have a new chair at hand, we will issue a loan wheelchair.”
Frere CEO Dr Rolene Wagner said that since the start of the programme in 2010, their stock of loan chairs had increased from 80 to 352. They issued 666 new wheelchairs last year, up from 344 the previous year.
About 30 wheelchairs were lent to patients every month.
She said the government had issued more money for chairs, meaning they were able to find and replace more used wheelchairs.
“We also looked at condemned wheelchairs. Then we strip them and used them for spare parts,” said Wagner.
Levinia Lottering, 16, from Fort Beaufort, who has been in high care since November after being paralysed in a car crash, was delighted when her R40000 specialised electric wheelchair arrived.
It meant she could go home soon.
The department issues on average two motorised chairs every month. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
Ex-miner delights in role as Mr Fix-it
Sunny Tapolisi started at Frere Hospital in 2010 after a decade of working in the mines.
He is now a vital member of the hospital’s occupational therapy department.
“Our people really struggle where they are based, especially in rural areas where there is hardly any transport. I really enjoy bringing the wheelchairs to them,” he said.
Tapolisi does outreach work in King William’s Town, Mooiplaas, Dimbaza, Duncan Village, Tsholomnqa and Mdantsane.
Having completed his training, he is now paying it forward by training others in the departments of physiotherapy and occupational therapy in Duncan Village, Cecilia Makiwane, Grey and Bhisho hospitals and Mthatha.
Saturday Dispatch accompanied Tapolisi and occupational therapist Tanita Smith to deliver a wheelchair to 85-year-old Nodabephi Ziwani in Duncan Village on Thursday.
Ziwani, a farmer from Tsholomnqa, suffered a stroke in 2003.
Her daughter, Thelma Ziwani, said: “This wheelchair will assist her a lot to feed her pigs and chickens and she will be able to navigate her way around on her own.”
Back at Frere’s occupational therapy department, patients were being assessed to see if they needed a wheelchair.
Senior manager Anastacia Scholtz said: “If we don’t have a new chair at hand, we will issue a loan wheelchair.”
Frere CEO Dr Rolene Wagner said that since the start of the programme in 2010, their stock of loan chairs had increased from 80 to 352. They issued 666 new wheelchairs last year, up from 344 the previous year.
About 30 wheelchairs were lent to patients every month.
She said the government had issued more money for chairs, meaning they were able to find and replace more used wheelchairs.
“We also looked at condemned wheelchairs. Then we strip them and used them for spare parts,” said Wagner.
Levinia Lottering, 16, from Fort Beaufort, who has been in high care since November after being paralysed in a car crash, was delighted when her R40000 specialised electric wheelchair arrived.
It meant she could go home soon.
The department issues on average two motorised chairs every month. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
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