The sad tale of the limbless African mall beggar

His name literally means a spectacle, a wonder, a sight. It is a name given to describe the shock and helplessness that Pontsho Ndlovu's mother felt at realising that she had just given birth to a baby boy with no arms or legs. That was way back on February 2, 1963, the limbless man will tell you.

His distraught mother could not understand why fate would choose her for its cruel joke and gave the boy a name that expressed how she felt: the child was a shock; something that she could never have been prepared to see.

It was something that her son would have to live with, and something about which he would never get answers when he would ask why it had to be him. And he has over the years, especially as a child when he would see other children play and he could not, or when other children made fun of him.

Editor's Comment
Mob justice isn't just

A young man suspected of breaking into a car was seized by residents, severely assaulted, and died in the hospital within an hour. We unreservedly condemn this mob justice. It is not a solution to crime, but a criminal offence that turns citizens into murderers.Residents are understandably angry about theft. The person who raised the alarm at 4am acted lawfully, and the neighbours who rushed to help showed community spirit. But what followed was...

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