‘Nobody Is Immune From This Virus'

After his doctor insisted it was just the flu, trade unionist Zwelinzima Vavi was not convinced –days later he was hospitalised

- Joy Mphande

His doctor insisted it was just the flu that had him feeling under the weather. “It’s not the coronavirus,” he assured trade union boss Zwelinzima Vavi.

But Vavi wasn’t convinced his sleepless nights and fever were being caused by the flu. He hadn’t been overseas recently. Nor, as far as he knew, had he been in contact with anyone who had – but he knew that whatever was knocking him down wasn’t just the flu.

His doctor had taken his temperature and told him, “go away, it is way below the guideline [ for coronavirus]”, he tells us.

Two days later he went back to his doctor and was prescribed antibiotics but when those had no effect on his symptoms, he returned to demand more tests.

“I felt I had to act on caution. The flu persisted so I went back to the doc and insisted on proper testing – and boom, it was positive.”

South Africa learned of Vavi’s diagnosis with a tweet from the secretary general of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu). “It’s true I tested positive to #CoronavirusInSouthAfrica”, he wrote.

The diagnosis came in the second week of South Africa’s 21-day lockdown. Vavi (57) was shocked and his thoughts immediately turned to his family – his businesswoman wife Noluthando (51), and their young twins, daughter Andisiwe Emihle and son Lubabalo Unako (7).

Arrangements were quickly made for them to be tested too.

Noluthando had to be tested twice because her first test result was “incomplete”, he says. But her final results were negative, as was their daughter’s.