CARING health professional Veganathan Naidoo has not only seen to the management and preventative health aspect of the citizens of Uitenhage for more than a lifetime but has become part of the very fabric of the town.
Vicky, as he is known, is the owner of Gamble Pharmacy, which has become more than just a place to get your medicines, it has become a haven for the ill and infirm.
Vicky is not in the business of making money, more in the business of delivering an excellent service to his clientele of whom most became his friends. He knows everyone by name, maybe he knows more people in Uitenhage than most people who had spent their entire lives in town.
He would go out of his way to assist those in need. It is seldom that one finds such enthusiasm, energy for hard work, diligence, and commitment and such a competent mind in a single individual. Vicky deserves all the accolades that come his way.
At one stage Gamble Pharmacy sponsored almost every dance, concert, karaoke or church ticket in Uitenhage. During a particular period, all the businesses at the shopping complex, which housed Gamble Pharmacy encountered a serious economic downturn, but Vicky and Gamble Pharmacy, survived and in fact, the pharmacy prospered.
This was totally due to Vicky’s gracious and engaging personality. Again, when small pharmacies took a knock some years ago and many pharmacists had to find work at state/private hospitals, Vicky in a small community, survived.
Vicky has always conducted himself in an exemplary manner. In addition, just an aside, I have never seen Vicky angry or upset with any person in the pharmacy during the long years that I have known him. Disappointed possibly, but never that it upset his balance, his good-natured manner and his sense of worth.
We met in Cricket – he was a delegate (I was an official of the Union at the time) for Crescents Cricket Club. Together with Ronnie Pillay (now Judge Pillay) we all became good friends. These were the “struggle days”, immediately after the 1976 Soweto Uprisings. This was when those in cricket circles especially in the Eastern Cape had “sold out” the sports struggle.
Crescents Cricket Club was established to fill a void that existed in the Malabar area. Vicky was at the forefront of building/reviving the non-racial ethic in Port Elizabeth/Uitenhage.
Vicky was committed to the adage of “no normal sport in an abnormal society”. A principled individual who never wavered from the course he set for himself, but always respected the views of others.
May Vicky’s association with Gamble Pharmacy and the citizens of Uitenhage continue for many years to come.
