Mr Timothy Maboa, the spelling corresponding to the Northern-Sothos from Limpopo, is vision-impaired, but with a zest for life.
Timothy made it quite clear that a certain stigma is attached to being called blind.
“Ag foeitog, ag shame,” the multi-lingual man commented.
“It is as if you are not capable of doing anything.”
He is only probably only at the mercy of others when he is a passenger in a car travelling to Trichardt, Secunda, Pretoria, Leandra or Delmas and wants to know the exact location.
Timothy misses driving since he was not born with this disability.
An attack in 1984 when he was hit on the right eye and sustained injuries to the left eye, caused the disability.
This happened in the evening in Sakhile, Standerton.
He was treated for gluacoma at the former Johannesburg Hospital’s Department of Ophtalmology and many operations followed.
Timothy is now left with his other senses functioning most effectively.
“I taste, smell and hear better,” he said.
He is a man from our township.
“I was born, bred and nurtured in Standerton.”
Father Pritchard is pushing 99 and his late mother, Winnifred, has the clinic in Sakhile named after her.
“She was a general nurse, a sister and a matron, all the pips on her uniform,” Timothy added.
Timothy, who turns 65 in April, and Miriam have been married for 22 years and nearly all of their offspring, two boys and two girls, have left the family home.
“Thuto, our ‘laatlammetjie’ is still living at home.”
Thuto is a learner at Stanwest Combined School.
Timothy completed his studies at Lesedi Primary School before going to a high school in Kimberley for secondary studies.
He is adroit in marketing, management and merchandising after completing courses in Johannesburg.
Braille was the challenge facing him and the fingertips that have to master where the numbers, vowels and consonants are.
“It is easier if you are born blind, but I asked myself how am I going to survive?”
The year 2019 saw him establishing a NGO called Mpholosi Association that focuses on dignified and successful survival for those in his shoes.
The NGO covers activities of daily living, orientation and mobility, Braille, typing, social intervention, counselling, as well as computer training.
Timothy is adamant that the playing field should be level.
Anybody in the business fraternity that would like to get involved, can contact him at 072 760 0414.
He also completed a course in Computer and Information Systems Concepts from the Department of Education through Unisa in 2000.
With his strong Christian values, the obvious choice for music would be gospel, however Timothy finds jazz alluring and reeled off the great ones such as Satchmo and Ella Fitzgerald.
“I can play the trumpet and bugle,” he also said.
Sport-wise he follows soccer, cricket and rugby on the radio and applauded the commentators for their sterling work.
He irons and washes clothes, paints, mops the tiles, bakes cakes and works in the garden of their Ext 8-house.
“Miriam is the supervisor. Ek skoffel, sy hark.” Timothy Maboa strongly believes that you can enjoy life like a normal person.
“Nothing is impossible, it only needs oomph,” he concluded.
