I Want To Give Someone Life

Isibaya actress Linda Mtoba opens up about why she decided to become an organ donor.

- Khosi Biyela

IT WAS her “aha” moment – the one that changed her views on a deeply controversial subject in South Africa and even made her parents question her decision.

But Linda Mtoba was determined: Playing a woman desperately in need of a heart transplant helped her realise the importance of organ donation – especially in a country like ours where organs are in such short supply that human trafficking rings are flourishing.

Her eyes have been opened, the 25-year-old says. Only 300 organ transplants are performed each year in SA and there are thousands of patients waiting for the gift of life – patients who are often doomed because of the lack of donors.

“Your death could give life to someone else,” Linda says. “I had to dig deep and research the importance of organ donation. The things we take for granted, such as our kidneys and our hearts – other people are being killed for. Women in particular are said to be targeted by human traffickers for their organs, which criminals then sell on the black market.”

The Umlazi-born beauty’s mindset was changed by playing the rebellious yet ailing Zama Ngwenya on Mzansi Magic’s Isibaya. Zama was fighting for her life after her heart started to fail and the hunt was on for a suitable donor.

“It’s really important for us to donate our organs when we die,” Linda says.

However, organ donation is still taboo in most black communities, and other belief systems, due to cultural and religious principles. Many people feel a person must be buried “whole” to be accepted by the ancestors.

Even her parents weren’t impressed when she told them she wanted to donate her organs, Linda says.

If more people registered for organ donation, she says, organ smuggling might be curbed.