The future looks bleak for a matriculant who did not write her final examinations in 2005 after she had fallen ill from a strange skin disease.

Ms Shonisani Mulaudzi (22), from Mianzwi-Tshimbupfe outside Thohoyandou, is still confined to her bed and in pain after she started showing symptoms of a lizard-skin disease.

Her family claims that between 2005 and 2009, they had spent R47 000 to pay traditional healers, with the hope of getting their daughter healed. Prophets were visited and several kinds of medication were used, but nothing came of it. Inyangas had allegedly charged between R1 500 and R4 000 (which included household protection from witchcraft), but no one was able to help the poor girl.

"She can’t walk and touch anything, because the pain is also affecting her brain and gives her a headache," says her mother, Mrs Annah Mulaudzi.

The sickness first surfaced when she was preparing to write her Grade 12 final exam in 2005. Her face and hands started to swell up and she became dizzy for two days. The pain also started and she had to scratch her body with a hard stick to stop the itching.

Since then, she has gone to different clinics and was given pills and lotions to rub on her skin. The pain did not stop, so she decided to consult private doctors, who diagnosed it is an allergy and prescribed more medication.

According to Mrs Annah Mulaudzi, her daughter needs to consult a dermatologist (a doctor specializing in skin diseases). “I am tired of being robbed by bogus skin doctors. They took all the money which we set aside for her education,” the devastated mother said.

Shonisani says that all she needs is good health and to go to school, because education is her future. Even though she has spent the past four years in bed, she does not mind repeating Grade 12, because she knows she will pass. "I wish if I can get a Good Samaritan to help me get rid of this skin disease,” Shonisani said.

The provincial health spokesperson, Mr Selby Makgotho, said that Shonisani must go to the nearest hospital so that a government dermatologist can examine her. “As a department we advise patients to go to hospital if they have problems, rather than stay at home,” Makgotho said.