After ten agonising days of pain, waiting, and uncertainty, Soddy Kekana has finally received the surgery he desperately needed — thanks to the unwavering love of his community and the courage of a teacher who refused to stay silent.
Pretoria, South Africa (23 March 2025) – After ten long, painful days of waiting, a young athlete has finally received the surgery he so desperately needed… and it’s all thanks to a community of classmates, teachers and thousands of South Africans who offered him all the support and love.
Soddy Kekana, a Grade 11 learner at Rietvlei Akademie, tore the muscles holding his kneecaps in place during an athletics meeting on 13 March 2025. His injuries were severe. Both kneecaps were visibly displaced and he was unable to move.
What followed was a harrowing wait at Steve Biko Hospital, where Soddy spent more than a week in pain, unsure of when – or if – he would be helped.
The first person to speak out was his teacher, Carinda Habig, who took to Facebook to share the raw and emotional reality of Soddy’s experience.
“This is a child in excruciating pain with fear in his heart,” she wrote on Human Rights Day. “On his first night there, they didn’t even give him a pillow or blanket.”
But Carinda’s post was more than just a plea. It was a rallying cry. And the community listened.
Soddy’s friends, most of them learners from his school, didn’t hesitate. They visited him daily, brought him food and fresh clothes, and even drove his mother back and forth from the hospital. One of them — described as “big and strong” by Carinda — physically carried him when he was too injured to move, placing him gently onto a hospital bed when no one else did.
Carinda’s words captured the heartbreak of watching a child suffer needlessly but they also shone a light on a rare kind of friendship that transcends language and background.
“This is no longer about Black or White,” she said. “Soddy Kekana is OUR Sotho friend in an Afrikaans school—Rietvlei Academy—and we love him deeply. We will fight for his rights on Human Rights Day!”
Her post was picked up by the popular Facebook page “We Are South Africans”, which reaches more than 760,000 people. And that’s when things started to shift.
Later that same day, Carinda received a phone call from a doctor at Steve Biko Hospital. He explained that Soddy had been placed on the ‘red list’, meaning he was finally a top priority for surgery. The doctor spoke candidly about the overwhelming pressure they were under, from lack of functioning theatres to staff exhaustion. And Carinda acknowledged the realities they faced.
And then, finally, on the morning of 22 March — ten days after his injury — Soddy went in for surgery.
“Wow, that’s been an incredibly long and difficult 10 days for us with our Soddy buddy,” Carinda shared in her update.
“But… good news, he had surgery this morning. In both of his knees.”
He was given pain medication and antibiotics and though still in recovery, Soddy is finally on the road to healing. His mother and grandmother were by his side and his teacher visited again the next day.
Carinda was overwhelmed with gratitude. “Soddy is ONE win we can pull off, but how many more ‘Soddys’ are out there? I have certainly stepped on toes with my posts, but as everyone who knows me knows, I fight for the weak and the sick and I will continue to do so until the day God comes and gets me.”
To Soddy, she had one last message: “You are brave and our Rietvlei Academy friends, parents and onnies love you. One of these days you will run dust in everyone’s eyes again!!!”
South Africa, you did good. When one of our own was hurting, you showed up. Not with perfect systems or politics but with love, kindness and action. And that made all the difference.
by 