You’ve seen the story, the horror story that is #HelenJosephHospital; we all felt this Tom’s trauma. South Africa has raised R200 000 to help Tom get thoracic surgery to scoop out the pus that has fermented in his lungs after he suffered neglected pneumonia through a two week stay in hell.
There’s no need to rehash the story, the video says it all. We are all Tom London. This is the weekly report, so let’s scratch the surface on this massive human struggle for the right to breathe.
You know when you get that niggly feeling in your tummy, when someone is always on your mind? I hadn’t spoken to Tom for about a month and I was actually peeved with him because he hadn’t called. I dropped a voice note saying “Are you alive?” plus an expletive. You know what the response was.
When I spoke to Tom he was coughing up blood and he hadn’t seen a doctor in two days; it was shortly after that that Tom lost his temper and that single video got six million views and #TomLondon became the biggest story in South Africa this week. He kicked open a hornet’s nest. Politicians flocked to his bedside filled with empty promises and directives on what he should and shouldn’t say. They don’t know Tom.
What politicians discounted is that thousands of people have experienced worse than what Tom endured, some aren’t here to tell their story. Social media was flooded with a #MeToo movement of another kind. #WeAreAllTomLondon.
Here are the terrifying facts: 86% of this country does not have medical aid. That’s 14% of us can afford to go to #Mediclinic. Here’s more numbers, 70% of our youth are unemployed. R350 won’t pay #Discovery, guys. The average hospital plan costs around three grand and the minimum wage is five grand. How are those numbers? Not cool.
So instead we have grannies having to drag themselves on the floor in #CharlotteMaxeka to get to the next space in the queue that lasts days. We see people sleep on the floor trying to make their way through the admission process. It’s inhumane, we are not animals. But here’s the thing. We knew this. Every single South African knows that a state hospital casualty is going to be hell. We all know that it. Yet none of us said it.
Today, Tom is in #Mediclinic where they’ve struck a deal to do his operation at a discounted rate of R275k. Add hospital fees and you’re at the R300k mark or more. Over a quarter of a million for one operation. That’s from the sublime to the ridiculous. Who can ever afford that? Alistair, a friend of Tom’s, opened up a #BackABuddy campaign and the rands started to drip in like a lifeline to Tommy’s veins.
Grenade has gone off
Fifty rand, a hundred rand some as generous as R5k but no massive donations from any corporate company and you want to know why? They’re too scared. This is a grenade that’s already gone off and now it’s the kindness of Mzansi that is left to carry the can.
I have so many questions but before I ask them, please contribute to help my dear friend. He’s a good guy, he’s scared, he helps people, he lives a simple life, he has a talent for broadcasting and he will champion the people’s cause. Please save my Tom’s life. Fifty bucks goes a long way. Here’s the link.
Right, my questions. They’re not for #HelenJoseph and our health minister, Aaron #Esidemeni Motsoaledi. The media have done an exemplary job at bringing them to account. My question is for #Mediclinic. There is R200 000 on the table, this is the biggest media story in the country. Have a heart, guys. Why are you denying crucial and critical healthcare to Tom London?
He was told yesterday that he has to go home to stop the bills rocketing. Have you ever? I mean seriously, who turns away R200k in exchange for a life altering op? How sick do you have to be to do that? I think #HelenJoseph is just the start of this horrific story; private healthcare works like the mafia. If you don’t have money for protection, you must die.
Sacrifice to pay medical aid
Last week there was no weekly report because I myself was in hospital, nothing dramatic just a pinched nerve. I am a big fan of Netcare’s The Bay hospital because they fixed my mom and they fixed me when I had septicaemia a couple of years ago. I’m also very lucky to know some of the doctors personally. And here’s the important bit, I pay for medical aid. I have a hospital plan that is excellent, and I pay 10k per month to Discovery for my Mom.
Yes, you read that right. That’s without levies etc which is about R3k. Who has that money? I don’t have that money, we sacrifice to pay the medical aid. We are lucky we can sacrifice. Eighty six percent of our nation can’t. While I was in the hospital a physio came to my bedside twice, the first time to see how I was feeling and the second time to ask me if I could walk, I could, she made me walk, I did.
The bill came to R600. How? Did I receive any physio? No. Did she supply me with aids to assist my back? No. Did she teach me exercises or even give me one of those stretchy bands, absolutely not. So, her walk-by while she was on duty that took in total three minutes, cost six hundred bucks. I could have added that money to Tom’s Back-a-Buddy and I did.
Rude doctors
I’m not paying because you said hello. We are all Tom London. Why are we so frightened of the medical profession? Is it because we are at our most vulnerable? Why do we kowtow to the doctor and never want to “trouble” the doctor with our questions. I went to other doctors while I was there and Tom’s right, they’re rude for the most part.
Perhaps rude is too strong, they’re curt and they have a ton of ego but that doesn’t mean we cannot stop them and say: “Oi, I’m human and I don’t understand, I’m scared and you’re not making me feel comfortable in my situation. I don’t know what you know, it’s your job to tell me what you know in a way that makes me comfortable.”
Like I said I’m lucky, I’m blessed with close friends who are doctors so my questions are answered with compassion and empathy and immediacy. I am not Tom London. When did we become a nation that allows medical fraternity to trample over our voices? Never. We are not that nation. Thank you Tom London for teaching us a valuable lesson.
Most importantly, dear reader, let’s help Tom get out of hospital and back on the air. It is very clear we need a boy from Springs to tell us who we are as a nation.
Emperor is naked
I knew Tom was going to dominate this piece of writing and I’m unapologetic about it. Tommy, you get better now, the nation needs you and we are behind you. Corporate South Africa, private medicine, public medicine – wakey wakey. It only takes one person to say the emperor is naked for the façade to fall. It does not take six hundred bucks to ask a person if they can walk. #RiseMyCountry
Right, what did you miss this week? I read the news so you didn’t have to and my goodness was it a tsunami of media. The top story today and likely the whole of next week is that #PravinGordhan passed away. When I think of this man, I have such mixed emotions. I used to love him so very much in the Zuma years. I actually wanted him to be President. I met him, he was a gentleman.
My friend worked for him, he was a great man of huge integrity and then he took hold of the SOEs and we saw him sell #SAA for fifty bucks and then made its debts disappear and reappear and disappear again. They got to him in the end.
Remember his right hand man #McebisiJonas? Well he left politics after he turned down R600m in cash from the Guptas. Mr Jonas knew things we didn’t know. God knows. #RIPPravinGordhan thank you for the times you did good.
Court cases unfold
We watched shocking court cases unfold. The #PigFarmMurders become more grotesque as we learn that not one, but two women were fed to the swines. One of the accused cried in court this week as reality starts to set in. This is no animal farm you heartless villains.
The #MiddleburgFarmers were also in court after allegedly setting two sheep thieves on fire and then burying them in a shallow grave. The courts were churning them out this week as seven cops and an informer were charged with extortion. #Extortion, a new realisation for South Africa.
We all knew, we are all Tom London, we just never said anything. I don’t think I’ve ever been stopped by a cop who didn’t try and get me to bribe them. #ZiziKodwa was back in court and that’s been postponed until October. #SenzoTrial has become far too complicated to follow but my ears pricked up when #ChiccoTwala announced that his son Longwe was a raging drug addict and an overall wrongun. #Longwe is a prime suspect in the case and when your dad comes out at this stage of the game and calls you names, something is awry. Will we ever know?
And scandals
The #VBSScandal head villain #Cholota appeared in a pretrial hearing, that is going to be lit! And then for those who are still watching, #Zuma lost his bid to recuse #BillyDowner, again. Looks like he’s going to court for real for real. Well, that’s what we are told.
As a lover of court teevee, it’s safe to say I can cancel Netflix. Did you see the biggest soap opera? #MboroTrial. What on earth is this story? We all saw when the panga wielding bodyguarded pastor kidnapped his grandkids from school but have you seen this oke in court? He raises his hands up to the roof and gives a church sermon before the judge walks in. It appears he’s got to the judge too because the prosecution have accused her of bias and asked her to recuse herself. She didn’t. In fact, she gave this maniac R3000 bail.
How can we rely on the judges to do the right thing in this situation? It’s liking asking any person if they think that they did a bad job and should be sacked and then they say, yes I should be sacked. If there is ever going to be bias, this is when you’re going to see it. I mean just look at ex-Judge Hlophe, do you think he’d recuse himself from anything? Not a chance, china. That’s a farcical rule South Africa. Can we call Tom London?
Listeriosis showdown
What else? There’s too much! Tiger Brands is finally facing it’s #listeriosis showdown. That was years ago, and still this story drags on as people die. All Tom Londons. We got a loan for climate change. It’s in dollars and has the word “millions” attached to it. Why are we paying for the world’s stuff up? We don’t need more loans and contracts, we need healthcare, water and employment. The West’s consistent abuse of our continent is revolting.
And then there’s the politrix. KZN government spent R17 million on hiring cars in four months. That’s 68 Tom London operations spent on flex. The #BelaBill has got the DA all tangled up as the President (at a working dinner) made it clear that changes were about to impact on our schools.
Politicians are really worried about this one; to be clear the South African laymen aren’t but politicians are, that means there’s money to be funnelled or they wouldn’t care a damn because listen to this stat 95% of teachers aren’t vetted. We don’t know their background, we don’t know their employment history or if they are on the sex offenders register or not.
Tom? You there? Listen to this one Tommy, #Mayibuye school was built on a swamp. It cost R100m and its about to sink, a bit like my stomach. There’s a R10 billion food tender that the minister has to “apply their mind” to. Ten billion? Come on. Who got that? And it’s food. Come on.
Tsotsis shot in the streets
One thing that seems to be headlines every single day is how tsotsis are being shot on the streets. #Mchunu is not taking prisoners, literally and we’re good with that. What about #JumpingJohn? Well, he moonwalked away from Roman #Cabanac. The country was relentless, and we refused to Cabanac the racist head up anything at all in our country. You see? We are all Tom London.
There’s so much else, but I have to move overseas, so I’ll leave South Africa with the #BafanaBafana and the Springboks keeping up our gees and the medals from the #paralympics making broad smiles and then #Tyla. Oh man, if you missed Tyla, check out our YouTube channel for why she’s the nation’s darling.
Across the waters, it was mental. James Earl Jones died, so sad. #EveryonesLionKing, #EveryonesFather. Vietnam has been ravaged by the weather. Sudan mass famine is impossible to watch and impossible to ignore.
In Gaza, UN workers are collateral damage. At least 40 people were killed, eleven of them UN workers, in an Israeli designated ‘safe zone’. Read that sentence again. We witnessed the #CraterOfSilence, the gaping wound left as more lives are lost and the narrative starts to include the #WestBank where there is no Hamas. Bulldozers are used against journalists to intimidate them into silence. But we are all Tom London. We see.
Man, if you’re still reading it’s time to cheer you up. Trump vs Harris. Did you watch it? I did. It was pure gold. There were times when I laughed so hard my stomach (and back) hurt. Firstly, Trumpette wouldn’t look at Kamala. He was standing opposite her for the entire debate and not one, not a single time did he even turn his head toward her. What’s that all about? He said the words billions and millions more than he lied.
And according to fact checkers, in an hour a half, Trump lied 55 times. It was ridiculous. He said that that Venezuela was having the best crime stats of all time because they’d sent all their criminals to the US. He said that the illegal immigrants were eating people’s pets in Springfield Ohio. He said cats and dogs were going missing as these immigrants were roasting them for dinner.
‘Catastrophe’
Please tell me you’re laughing. Kamala’s face was a picture, The memes wrote themselves as we had Kamala dressed as Marie Antoinette saying: “Let them eat cats”. Cats have been a major part of the elections in the US. Vance, said the only people who would vote for Harris would be single cat ladies. You can imagine what happened next. Catastrophe.
But back to this screamer of a debate. Trump said Harris would allow abortions in the ninth month of a pregnancy term. Her face. Kamala accused Trump of hosting the Taliban at Camp David and Trump said that he met the head of the Taliban, Abdul is his name. And he said to Abdul, “Abdul, you better not do that, don’t do that again” and Abdul said why are you sending me pictures of my house? And Trump said, “you have to figure that out for yourself Abdul”.
Guys, a comedy special by Katt Williams isn’t this funny. Do America see what’s going on? Where’s their Tom London, the emperor is truly naked. And then … Taylor Swift. Oft. I’m an Oasis fan, so I can’t with Swifties but you guys do you. Trump used AI to fake a #TaylorSwift endorsement. Yes, he did that, even Abdul knows that.
And then Swift, in tears with her family, justified how she can’t vote for Thumpy Trumpy. She banged on about her body, her choice, about abortion laws and said that Kamala is an empowered woman and then she did this… she completely endorsed Kamala Harris with a perfect picture of Taylor Swift and her cat. Classic. If I didn’t like her I’d like her.
Just so you know I’m not a Harris fan either; this chick kept telling us about what she would do in the debate but she’s actually been sitting in that office with sleepy Joe for three and a half years and she never did a damn thing. America needs a Tom London.
One more story – Kate’s back. See the video and photoshoot they did? It was not very demure. I didn’t mention Diddy and Weinstein. It’s all cobblers anyway.
I’m Tonya Khoury, someone give me the weekend off and please donate any money you can to my dear friend Tom London but most importantly keep him in your prayers. We are all Tom London.
