THE only thing that stands between Welcome and starvation is his cellphone.
Welcome Kunene (44), from Madelakufa squatter camp in Tembisa, Gauteng was attacked in his home last year and since then has been unable to walk.
He relies on his phone to get help from his neighbours.
Welcome, whose left side is paralysed, has to to lie in bed all day.
His wife has left him and if he wants a glass of water, some food or to pee, he phones the neighbours.
He said he never thought his wife would leave him.
“But she spent my money and now she’s gone,” he said.
Welcome, who worked for a courier company, said he was at home with his wife and kids when thugs burst into their shack.
“They demanded my cellphone and cash and stabbed me in the neck. They thought they had killed me but I survived,” he said.
But the attack left him paralysed.
Welcome’s shack smells of pee.
“If my neighbours are not available I have to relieve myself in bed and sleep in the mess,” he said.
He said he once fell out of bed and had to wait for one of his neighbours to pick him up.
“I’m praying to go to a rehabilitation centre where I can get physiotherapy to help me walk again.”
Evangelist Aaron Sebaka said: “We are appealing to the public to donate so he can get a motorised wheelchair for Welcome.”
Captain Manyadza Ralidzivha said a case of attempted murder was opened at Tembisa Police Station.