WATCH: Triathlete Mhlengi Gwala gets back in saddle for his girls
“Every step I take, I think of them. If I get depressed - they will have no daddy,” he told The Independent on Saturday, two months after a group of assailants tried to hack his legs off with a power saw while he was out cycling near the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Howard College campus just before sunrise.
Gwala has high hopes that in a few months the pins in his leg will be out and he will be back cycling and swimming.
However, it will take more time before he is ready to take up the favourite of his three sports, running.
“I’m a good runner. Maybe I’ll be able to do it in a year’s time,” he said.
Gwala, who walks on crutches, said he still had no idea who his attackers were, or why they attacked him.
“It could have been out of jealousy. It could have been for body parts,” he said.
His assailants almost dismembered his right lower leg, hacking through 80% of the bone below his knee, also destroying most of the muscular and nerve tissue.
Gwala was cycling up the the lower end of Rick Turner Road (near the Bellair Road Sasol garage) en route to meet fellow triathlete Sandile Shange for an early morning training session.
After stopping him in the dimly lit road, one of the assailants pulled out a firearm. They then dragged Gwala into the bush and started sawing off his legs before abandoning the scene, without having stolen Gwala’s iPhone, watch and mountain bike, with a total estimated value of R70000.
The horrifying attack saw an outpouring of support from Durban residents, particularly those in the cycling and running fraternities, and a Backabuddy fund was started to assist him with costs. Yesterday, Backabuddy confirmed that Gwala’s supporters had contributed more than R750000 towards his recovery.
Gwala overcame drug and alcohol addictions and went on to represent South Africa at international competitions in Chicago in 2015 and in the Netherlands last year.
No arrests have been made in connection with the attack.