He once wore his blue-and-white striped Hugo Boss shirt with pride but it became a source of despair for Bongani Ngcobo, who has tuberculosis. Those with the disease who are declared too ill to work by a medical professional qualify for a government disability grant. Ngcobo says the doctor who assessed him told him he “dressed too well to be poor” and declined to recommend that he get the grant. Ngcobo was jobless because he had spent seven months in hospital being treated for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis – a form of the disease that requires up to two years of treatment with toxic drugs. He returned to his home in semi-rural KwaZulu-Natal in November last year with a...
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