Injured Tsvangirai Flown To Gabs

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Monday March 9, 2009 00:00

 

The Prime Minister was flown to Botswana late Saturday after the Botswana Foreign Affairs minister and other government officials visited him at a Zimbabwean hospital the same day. However Skelemani immediately allayed any fears that Tsvangirai's health might have been in danger back home when he was rushed to Botswana.

'We do not doubt that he was receiving proper medical attention in Zimbabwe at all.

When I went to check him yesterday (Saturday), he was put in a clinic, which is a specialized facility, not a general hospital. He was also well escorted, as any Prime Minister would.

'He is just here to get a second opinion about his health. Sometimes some injuries are not immediately detectable. I think he is fine although I'm not a doctor. But even yesterday when I went to check him in Zimbabwe, he was walking; he walked to his car.'

However it is a known fact that following the melt down in Zimbabwe, health facilities in that country have reached near collapse, something that must have prompted the Botswana government to rush to take the Zimbabwean Prime Minister to better facilities here.

Skelemani also refused to say where Tsvangirai was receiving his medial attention in Botswana, saying it is a private matter. Skelemani  would not want to be drawn into discussing Tsvangirai's injuries. 

'That is his privacy. It will be unethical to discuss that. I would not even say how long he will be here, but remember that he has to go back and arrange the burial of his wife; so he would like to go back to Zimbabwe as soon as possible,' Skelemani said, referring any questions related to Tsvangirai's injuries to the Zimbabwean authorities.

Concerning reports that Tsvangirai might not have been given state escort when he encountered the accident, the Botswana Foreign Minister said; 'That could be a lie. The official report we got is that he was actually well escorted. Even at the clinic he had escort, I saw the escort myself.'

Skelemani said President Ian Khama dispatched him to go and see Tsvangirai and show him support. 'We went there because Tsvangirai has lost a wife. The President (Khama) sent us there to deliver condolences and went to see him at the clinic. I was with other government officials,' he said without mentioning names.

'As Botswana government we grieve with Tsvangirai. The tragedy came at a very bad time when he would have needed his wife even more. How does anyone get a government like the Zimbabwean government back to its feet when you have lost your better half...we wish him strength from the Lord. He needs to know that his friends are around him and they feel for him and that is the sort of support we are showing him,' Skelemani told the Monitor on Sunday.