NCA member collapses, dies during workshop

Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Correspondent
A MEMBER of Professor Lovemore Madhuku’s National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) collapsed and died on Thursday at a Bulawayo hotel while attending a Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) organised workshop.

The name of the deceased has been withheld because his next of kin may not have been informed. The NCA member, who is suspected to have been diabetic, is said to have collapsed at about 2pm and rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
ZESN executive director Ms Rindai Vava declined to officially confirm the tragedy.

“We are following the right protocols before we go public. And I think it won’t be fair for the family to see it coming from us. But he collapsed and he was picked by the doctors who took him to the hospital,” said Ms Vava.

“We are still to get the official report from the hospital. We are not able to speak officially on those issues; we are still waiting for the right protocols to be followed. We are going to issue a statement by tomorrow and we need to get the permission of the family if we are to speak about what happened.”

She said Prof Madhuku was the right man to comment about the issue.

“He belongs to the National Constitutional Assembly and the best person to speak on this is Professor Madhuku. He was seconded by Prof Madhuku so we can’t speak on participants who were seconded by organisations. He is the right person to be quoted on this,” she said.
“He is not a member of my family. These are sensitive issues if you are asking about the conference I was going to respond.”

Prof Madhuku could not be reached for comment on his cellphone. Sources said the death came as a shock to most participants at the workshop.

“Actually some of us did not see anything and we can’t even put a face to the name. It happened during the lunch break so most of us were not in the building when he collapsed,” said a source.