The Grade 8 pupils were operated on after their plight was highlighted in Sowetan, prompting Premier Zweli Mkhize to intervene and commit his government to helping them financially with their operations. “My mother has promised to buy us new shoes,” she said. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 4070 kg (88154 lb) for males and 2750 kg (60110 lb) for females and standing 120 to 150 cm (3 ft 11 in to 4 ft 11 in). Their distinctive mode of travel - walking on the sole of each foot and the knuckles of their hands - have earned them the title of knuckle-walkers. They are considered great apes, just like gorillas, orangutans, and bonobos. Chimpanzees typically over-stride (the hand contacts the ground either at or further anteriorly than the foot). “It will be exciting going to school wearing them. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. Chimpanzees are very familiar to us humans, perhaps because so much of their behavior reminds us of ourselves. “I am looking forward to the first time I put my shoes on. Her sister said the doctor had advised them to wear sharp- pointed shoes so that their feet could “take shape”. “I only remember the doctor injecting me. “But I can confirm that Bongekile was taken to theatre first, at 1.10pm and brought back at 1.55pm Bongiwe went at 2.10pm and returned at 3.15pm,” said Phoswa.īongekile said she did not remember much about the operation that has changed her life. “We don’t know much about their medical operations but there’s a patient-doctor confidentiality clause that we have to respect. However, it still lacked the peculiar substrate-conforming, hand-like grasping foot of living African apes. The operation, which took less than an hour for each of them, was a “simple” procedure, according to Sister Margaret Phoswa. The twins were born with deformed feet and hands.īongiwe and Bongekile, from Jozini, were admitted to the Durban hospital last week to have their extra toes removed to enable them to wear shoes.
This was the excited response of one of the Mthembu twins, Bongiwe, as she and her sister Bongekile left Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital yesterday after successful operations. “I CAN’T wait for my feet to heal properly so I can wear my first pair of shoes.”