After 18 months of bandages and surgery, six-year old Mbali Mahlangu is finally able to play with other children again.
Her mother, Leon, said it was the first time in a very long time she had seen her daughter, who was badly burnt in a shack fire, happy and well.
Tshepo and Leon Mahlangu still vividly remember the morning their daughter, then four, was caught in the fire at their home in Hlalanikahle, outside Witbank in Mpumalanga.
Tshepo said he and Leon had walked to a nearby shop about 6am while Mbali was still asleep to buy something for her lunch.
"It didn't even take 10 minutes." The couple panicked on returning to a burning house.
"While I was still looking for her inside she woke up - she didn't even cry or scream - she touched me on the leg so I knew she was there," said Leon.
Leon escaped with Mbali in her arms. The child was kept in isolation for nine months undergoing skin grafts at Witbank Hospital, but was taken to a hospital in Pretoria after open wounds continued to peel and bleed.
After visiting several hospitals, the Mahlangus travelled to the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town, aided by a R200 000 trust set up by a community member. As the treatment was free, the balance of this fund will be used to safeguard Mbali's future, her parents said.
Mbali will return home for the first time after receiving a final operation on her ears on Friday.
"She's asking a lot of questions. Sometimes it's hard because we don't know what to say," said her father.
"She always asks me why the doctors can't give her medicine to have her hair back again," he said. "I know she's concerned about her beauty, but it's not beauty that makes a child powerful."
After six months of continued physiotherapy in Johannesburg, Mbali will return to Cape Town for further plastic surgery. - Cape Times
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