Statement by Ms Nicole Ncube on the loss of her mother Sevey Ncube at Tembisa Hospital

• Delivered by Ms Nicole Ncole at the #FixTembisaHospitalNow families’ press conference and launch of the #FixTembisaHospitalNow campaign and petition

JOHANNESBURG 28th January, 2020

I am Nicole Melissa Ncube, I am 19 years old and I am the daughter of Sevey Ncube.

When we found out that my mother was no more I knew that there was more to what they were telling us because it did not make sense. My mother kept on informing me that she had been sitting on the wheelchair since she went to the hospital (24th-27th) with no food, no water and they were not allowed to go to the bathrooms.

At first I did not want to believe it until I went to the hospital with food to give her and I was able to see her from a distance in the condition she told me about, people sleeping on floors and 3 to 4 people sharing a bed. We had to found out on a Friday(3rd July) that she was no more when she had passed on Monday(29th), they said to us they contacted us and asked the police to come and inform but I was not contacted nor did I have policemen come to our home.

I tried contacting my mother from Monday (29th) with no answer, I called the hospital on Wednesday (1st) and I was told that she was in Ward 20 not that she was no more. Friday afternoon I went to the hospital hoping that I would be allowed to see her and when I arrived at the Ward 20, it was a female Covid-19 ward.

The doctor and nurses informed us that she had passed on and I asked if the cause of death was Covid-19 and they said they were not sure as results were not out yet. They informed us that in the ward she was being treated for the “Covid-19 symptoms” she was showing, she was not being treated for thyroid nodule. We went on to the mortuary, and at our arrival they pulled up her file and it had a note written that the cause of death was Covid-19, the plastics with her clothes also had notes stapled to them written “Sevey Ncube Ward 20 Covid” .

Family returned to the hospital on Monday with the undertakers to collect her body and they found her body wrapped in three plastics, which is how they cover patients who died of Covid-19. I was called in for the redress meeting after weeks of postponement, and I was told that her Covid-19 test results were negative and the cause of my mother’s death was her chronic disease (HIV) and that she was developing some kind of white tissue in her throat and that is what led to her passing. I was well aware of her condition and I also knew that she had had HIV for almost 20years without missing a day of taking her medication. I do believe howsoever that even if it was her treatment that was starting to fail as they said in the meeting, being given wrong medication, being deprived of food, water and a bed to sleep on led to her death.

As a student and daughter to the late Sevey Ncube, life has since been nothing but hardship and chaotic. I cannot afford to pay rent, the little I receive in a month goes from hand to mouth, it’s has been a really hard transition from being totally dependent to being 100% independent, it has been a traumatic and very hurtful 7 months.

I have become an orphan because of the negligence of Tembisa hospital, while the doctors and nurses go to bed peacefully, I have to sleep missing my mother’s warm arms every night. I have to constantly worry about how I’ll get through life’s problems without her. I will moving to another institution this year and I have no idea how I will get there, how I will pay deposit for accommodation, what I will eat while I wait until I receive the nsfas allowance, where I will come back and stay when the academic year ends.

The one person who would have done everything that she possibly could to make sure that all goes well has been taken away just to add to Tembisa Hospital’s death statistics. You did not just take away my mother, but you took away absolutely everything from me, my security, my home. What I expect from all of this is that all doctors and nurses who involve themselves in neglecting or in my words killing our family members should lose their licenses and jobs as well. We cannot live in a society where we fear going to the hospital because we are scared we will not come back alive.

To this day I do wish that I could have to get my mother medication from the pharmacy or saved up money to take her to a private doctor, at least she would have had a bed to sleep on, food to eat, water to drink, and she would be able to bath at anytime. We could give her the dignified funeral she deserves and always hoped for because she was classified as a Covid-19 patient, her coffin was wrapped in plastic and the family was not allowed to see her for the last time because of that.

After the pain of not being able to send her off in a proper way, we were still lied to and told that her test results were negative, and we were told more lies on top of that. All Sevey Ncube needed was a doctor to look at her file and her condition, be given the correct medication and not have her basic rights violated. She was also a human being, she was a wonderful and great mother, grandmother and sibling. She did not deserve to die just to increase statistics.

Thank you.