Not All Heroes Wear Capes

DRUM speaks to the ordinary citizens keeping Mzansi going

- Jody-Lynn Taylor

KEITU MYENIWAM (38) – NURSE It’s tough to help women give birth during this time because you worry that both mom and baby might get infected, Keitu says.

On the bright side, says the nurse, who works at a Pretoria hospital, her morning commute is much easier now as there’s no traffic. “Another positive aspect is that we’re fully staffed as all leave was cancelled so workwise it’s a breeze.”

But she says it was a different story when she went grocery shopping in her uniform shortly before lockdown started.

“The stares . . . It felt as if people were avoiding standing near me or walking past me. I haven’t gone shopping again, uniform or not.”

To keep her kids safe, Keitu took them to stay with family in her small hometown before lockdown started. She says knowing they’re safe makes it easier for her to focus on her work.

“I miss them but really, I’m doing it for them too,” she says. “I think if they’d been here with me, I wouldn’t have been as brave.”

THEY are the people who have kept the country going while the rest of us have been holed up at home in a bid to escape a virus that shows no mercy.

The people who’ve had to tamp down their own fears and put on a brave face in order to tend to the sick, serve the hungry or protect the vulnerable.

The men and women who stand on the forecourt of petrol stations at all hours of the day and night, ready to fill up our vehicles. The police officers who risk ridicule and violence when they try to clear the streets of groups of people. The bus drivers and taxi drivers who ferry people to work, to the shops, to the hospitals.

I miss them but really, I’m doing it for them too’