adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
NINETY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Alfred Khumalo is still stuck at the Plumtree District Hospital 10 months after he was harshly deported from Botswana as the neighbouring country has refused to take him back.
The Department of Social Services has so far failed to put him in a proper facility.
Khumalo, who is supposed to be housed at an old people’s home, has been staying in the hospital’s male ward.
Khumalo was deported by Botswana immigration officials in August last year after living in that country for more than 70 years.
The neighbouring country had indicated that it would take back Khumalo, a development which has not materialised 10 months after it was announced.
Plumtree district medical officer Dr Langalokusa Sibanda said they were still waiting for the relevant authorities to move Khumalo to a proper facility.
“We have been holding onto Khumalo for the past 10 months. At one point in time he was taken to UBH where he was supposed to be put in an old people’s home but the hospital rejected him as they indicated that he needed extra care and they sent him back to us.
“We did not have any other option but to take him back. The hospital has become his home. He eats the food that we serve at the hospital and we have been monitoring him,” said Dr Sibanda.
He said the hospital environment was not suitable for a person in Khumalo’s state.
“Khumalo should not be in a hospital but at an old people’s home as his state does not require him to be here. His stay here just puts him at high risk of contracting infections because he is surrounded by ill people.
“At the moment he is well and we have been giving him his medication for sugar diabetes and blood pressure. It is unfortunate that he has been stuck in the hospital all this while instead of being in a conducive environment. As a hospital we only have facilities for ill people and not for old people,” he said.
Matabeleland South provincial social services department officer Mr Totamirepi Tirivavi said efforts to put Khumalo in a retirement facility were continuing.
“We were not aware that he was still housed in Plumtree Hospital but we will try to get him to a proper facility. Efforts to put him in a facility in Bulawayo have failed as all of them have indicated that they are full.
“The only option that is left is to have him moved to a facility in Harare as there is little hope of having him moved to Botswana,” he said.
Efforts to put Khumalo in Ekuphumuleni Old People’s Home flopped after officials at Ekuphumuleni requested a $50 fee per month for his upkeep but the Government indicated that it could only provide $15.
On his deportation, Khumalo, who was born in 1917 in Mbembesi, said he did not know anyone in the country and indicated that he preferred to go back to the neighbouring country.
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