As the 2019 Tripartite Elections draw closer, Senior Chief Katumbi of Rumphi has warned people to guard against politicians who usually bring donations in the name of luring voters.<\/p>\n
Such people, the chief says, come like saints but deep down their hearts they have selfish motives.<\/p>\n
Senior Chief Katumbi made the observation in Hewe on Saturday when Hewe Development Association (Heda) donated 25 mattresses worth K1 million to the area\u2019s Katowo Rural Hospital.<\/p>\n
The chief recalled a scenario towards the 2014 Tripartite Elections involving aspiring Member of Parliament for the area (Rumphi West Constituency), Jane Kabogodo Gondwe.<\/p>\n
Gondwe, who was contesting as an independent, donated mattresses to Katowo Rural Hospital, but she later reclaimed the mattresses after losing the elections to the current parliamentarian, Jacqueline Kuowenhoven.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all shocked, because at that time some patients were even being removed from their sick beds. Up to this date, no one in this area understands what was exactly going on in her mind,\u201d the chief lamented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis hospital has been experiencing shortages of mattresses. She showed some love by bringing what our brothers and sisters were lacking whenever they are admitted to the hospital, but all of the sudden [after losing the elections] she turned her back on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that since then, Gondwe, currently in the United Kingdom, has never been in the area again.<\/p>\n
The Daily Times <\/em>was unable to seek Gondwe\u2019s comment despite several efforts.<\/p>\n Heda board of trustees\u2019 chairperson Timothy Nzima said the main focus of the one-year-old organisation is to address human needs.<\/p>\n \u201cHere in Hewe we have one hospital that caters for 14 villages. It means resources at this hospital are always under pressure. When my friends and I sat down we agreed to start with mattresses. That is what was needed most,\u201d Nzima explained.<\/p>\n Katowo Rural Hospital Medical Assistant Tabakavu Gondwe said the gesture will make a huge difference.<\/p>\n He said that some patients spend nights on the floor, a situation he said puts them at a risk of contracting some avoidable infections.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge is too big. Others sleep on the floor making it difficult for us when such patients need a drip. Some sleep on torn mattresses, which is not healthy at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He conceded that the hospital\u2014which serves over 26,000 people\u2014is under pressure considering the influx of patients from neighbouring Zambian villages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the 2019 Tripartite Elections draw closer, Senior Chief Katumbi of Rumphi has warned people to guard against politicians who usually bring donations in the name of luring voters. Such people, the chief says, come like saints but deep down their hearts they have selfish motives. Senior Chief Katumbi made the observation in Hewe on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43759,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43754\/revisions\/43759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}