Maravi

Rupiah neglected Bonshe and allowed him to die – Mpombo

Rupiah neglected Bonshe and allowed him to die – Mpombo
By George Chellah
Thu 04 Mar. 2010, 04:10 CAT

GEORGE Mpombo (left) yesterday said President Rupiah Banda neglected the late home affairs deputy minister and Mufumbwe MMD member of parliament Misheck Bonshe and allowed him to die.

In an interview, Mpombo described the Bonshe who died on Sunday in Nigeria where he had gone for prayers as a close family friend. Mpombo said there has been gross negligence by President Banda and his government on Bonshe's health.

“Last year about June 2009, I led a delegation on behalf of the minister of foreign affairs to Swaziland for a SADC meeting on security and politics. In that delegation there was Honourable Bonshe, he was representing the minister of home affairs. When we arrived in Mbabane… Honourble Bonshe had come on that trip in a very weak state of health,” Mpombo narrated.

“So in the night he developed serious complications and lucky enough we had doctors in our delegation. There was this commissioner of police, he was also in the delegation so they found out that his sugar had shot up to very dangerous levels and his face had begun to swell up. I think they even took him to some hospital in Mbabane.”

Mpombo, who is also former defence minister, said he informed President Banda about Bonshe's health.

“As delegation leader, the following morning I phoned President Banda at State House and told him that one of his ministers Bonshe was unwell. He was quite sick and I indicated that he needed to be rushed to South Africa for special medical attention.

And then the President said he was going to ask the minister of health to contact me. After two hours the minister of health Mr Kapembwa Simbao contacted me and asked me what was the problem and I told him and said the opinion there in Swaziland even from the Zambian delegation was that the way he was looking, he was in a terrible state, he needed to be evacuated to South Africa, which was not far away from where we were in Mbabane,” Mpombo said.

“And he said he will get back, at the same time my delegation also opened up communication with the High Commissioner in South Africa Mr Leslie Mbula who showed great concern and also in the process my delegation opened up contacts with a company in South Africa that does evacuations I think for Zambia.

And we all agreed that they will organize a plane, which was on standby to come to Mbabane to evacuate Mr Bonshe, and we even arranged a team that was going to accompany Mr Bonshe from Swaziland.

“So while we were waiting, we were told to wait for confirmation from Lusaka in terms of the fares, the bookings of the plane and the usual thing. After waiting for about five hours the people that are in-charge of evacuation phoned to say they have been informed by Lusaka that there are no funds.”

He said the Zambia mission in South Africa also confirmed that Lusaka had indicated that they had no money so the evacuation exercise was called off.

“It was a devastating news considering the deteriorating condition of Mr Bonshe. The man had even lost his step, he was just like floating in the air.

It was devastating news. We couldn't understand why such a decision was taken because South Africa was just about 30 minutes away and people were saying 'is it because he is a deputy minister or what could be wrong?

How can government do such a thing when one is in critical condition very near to South Africa and they refuse to do that when some people have been flown in on the basis that payments to be done later?'” Mpombo said.

“So we finished our meeting in Mbabane and then we had another meeting, Zambia - Namibia Joint Permanent Commission, which was being held in Livingstone so we flew from Mbabane to Johannesburg then to Livingstone with Mr Bonshe.

Even in Livingstone Mr Bonshe was so sick that he was not even able to attend the meeting and it was giving us great concern. Mr Bonshe left the meeting only to end up I think at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and then he was hospitalized. So what we are saying is there has been gross negligence by the government in as far as attention to Mr Bonshe was concerned.”

He said the government neglected Bonshe.
“If government at that point had allowed Mr Bonshe to have gone to South Africa whatever the outcome, government would have shown commitment to his health. But you see for government to refuse to evacuate somebody, these are double standards,” he said.

When pressed on whether he felt the President neglected Bonshe, Mpombo answered: “Yes he did! Bonshe was neglected because government did not do what they were supposed to do.

It's morally repugnant that government today could even start issuing statements to say 'he was a hard worker' when they didn't actually appear to care for his health when he was alive,” Mpombo said.

“Me and Mr Bonshe, our families are very, very close and it's a painful development that government did not see it fit to take Bonshe who was right at the door steps of South Africa. Look at how many people have been evacuated since July last year into South Africa. After his illness in Mbabane Bonshe never recovered.”

Bonshe, 65, died on Sunday in Nigeria where he had gone for prayers and his body was brought back to Lusaka yesterday.

Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, HEALTHCARE, HYPOCRISY, MMD

posted by MrK @ 7:38 PM