Some months ago I submitted an article touching on
David a worker on a mine where I worked. The following information was passed onto me by David himself and therefore I accept it as the truth.
David joined the SANDF as a private and worked as a labourer in the camps he was assigned to. The work was mainly of a physical nature and rather tedious even for David who was obese and physically strong. His was to do general cleaning in the camps and toting the garbage to the containers.
One day David, while doing his job was stung by a bee. What I understood later, after being told about the instance, I requested him to tell me more about it which he done with alacrity and some pride. After he was stung he went to the camp commander’s office and requested time off to heal his “wound”. The request was turned down much to David’s dismay: after all he had been injured on the job and according to the unions, as David stated, he was damn well entitled to sick leave. He still maintains that stance today. He was later placed in a sickbay with other ailing soldiers and this isolation from everyday events made him “Sick in the head”.
I had to assume that this means depression because he had displayed some depression after going through an ABET training bout. Later he was discharged from the army and joined the mines as a helper in the electrical work shop. It was here that he was discovered as illiterate and hardly able to write his name. He had come from a poor background and consequently lost out on his entire education. His abilities were rather elementary and would rather sweep the floor than learn to add 6+6 because sweeping produces less stress.
It took me several months to really understand David and how he thinks. David did have mental hang-ups yet as time passed he seemed to be improving and it became easier to communicate with him on a peer basis. One morning I arrived at work late and David was waiting for me at the door armed with my cup filled with tea. I could see that he was stressed out and assumed it was due to domestic strife to which he was well acquainted. In fact he had been concerned that I may have been involved in a motor accident on the way to work. I was forced to look the other way. The POINT IS David is just another person deserving better.
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