It came as a devastating shock when the family of Nomaqocwa Blackie was informed that their beloved “Noma” was found dead in her Shanghai apartment on Monday 18 April.
The 29-year-old became a teacher in China in 2017 where she settled down in the country’s financial hub, Shanghai, and worked at a local school.
Noma was caught in the Shanghai lockdown
In March Shanghai was hit with another wave of Covid-19 infections. And as a means to handle the situation, the city implemented lockdowns in certain areas while mass testing was done in others.
From there, however, Shanghai implemented stricter lockdown rules and extended them to the entire city on April 5. And as reported by BBC, the decision was made after the city was experiencing up to 13 000 positive cases a day.
And so, Noma was one of the millions caught in the “lockdown nightmare”.
Family and friends could not reach her
During the lockdown, Noma was still working from home and kept in contact with her family who lives in Motherwell, Eastern Cape.
And the Blackie family had a tradition that every Sunday they would meet for prayer at 17:00. However, when Noma’s sister, Pumza Tuse, and her mother, Nombulelo, tried connecting via Zoom on 17 April, Noma did not answer.
Tuse then reached out to her sister’s friend and colleague who also came from South Africa, Abongile Mboto. And Mboto then revealed that Nomsa had not submitted any learning material videos for the school where they both worked.
Both Tuse and Mboto knew that Noma had to be checked on, and as Sunday World reported, her colleague had an access code to her apartment.
“Since Abongile had an access code to Noma’s apartment, she gave it to the police and Covid-19 volunteers who went to her flat, and this is where the shocking discovery was made. It is yet not clear how she died as the police are still investigating,” Tuse said.
Cause of death – starvation?
Since the story broke out, there have been many speculations made on Twitter that Noma died of hunger. And although this has not yet been confirmed by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Shanghai is in the middle of a scandal, with complaints about food shortages being the focus.
The South African reported that a South African former journalist who is currently living in Shanghai confirmed that there are food shortages, however not because there is a lack of food.
“It’s indefinite and the impact is huge. There are food shortages and not because there is a lack of food it’s because the government is basically controlling the supply of the food. They’re basically trying to minimise traffic and minimise delivery and contact. Naturally, the supply of food and supplies is affected,” the source said.
Furthermore, Noma’s family is currently trying to get her body back on home soil as soon as possible.