Pretoria | Sunday
COMPLICATIONS such as pneumonia and kidney failure from a back problem caused the death of Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete, a senior African National Congress official said on Saturday.
Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe said doctors at Military 1 Hospital did a dialysis on Tshwete on Friday to diminish a build-up of body fluids.
”Eventually at 11pm, they were unable to continue saving him,” Motlanthe told reporters at Tshwete’s ministerial residence in Pretoria.
Motlantha said Tshwete also contracted pneumonia last week. He was admitted to the military hospital about three weeks ago with a recurring back ache.
”Apparently the lower lumber of his spine was pinching on nerves. As you know, once a person is unable to use his limbs … lying down there, other complications emerge.”
Numerous colleagues, friends and family members of Tshwete visited his widow Pamela on Saturday to pay their condolences.
Among them were President Thabo Mbeki’s wife Zanele, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya, Sports and Recreation Minister Ngconde Balfour, and National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Tshwete’s son Mayihlome (19) arrived around lunchtime from the Eastern Cape. Other visitors included Ali Bacher, executive director of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, and Gauteng Premier Mbazima Shilowa.
Maduna told reporters his sense of shock, pain and loss was difficult to describe.
He said he and Tshwete worked closely together to give political leadership in the fight against crime.
”Just when one was beginning to feel the criminal justice system was getting somewhere, sadly we lost the person who was at the pinnacle of our efforts.”
Finding an individual to replace him would be difficult, Maduna said.
”We have yet to find a person whose steadfastness, commitment to work, passion and humaneness will surpass that of Steve Tshwete. We have lost a great man.”
Selebi said he had not only lost a minister but also a friend.
”I can’t imagine him being with us no more. He was larger than life.”
Selebi said Tshwete always gave him tangible support in difficult times, adding: ”I don’t know who is going to that now.”
ANC representative Smuts Ngonyama found it difficult to control his emotions while giving an account of Tshwete’s work to build the ANC into a national organisation.
”One strong point about him was that he was an honest person, brutally honest. At the same time, he did not shy away from acknowledging his own mistakes.”
Motlanthe said Tshwete gave his entire life to the cause of liberation.
”Even when he was struggling with his health, he soldiered on until about one hour before Freedom Day.”
Tshwete was passionate over improving the plight of his people and was always available to contribute to this cause, he said.
Motlanthe said Tshwete’s family was still to let the ANC know when and where he would be buried.
Tshwete’s mother, mother-in-law and some other family members were still at Peelton in the Eastern Cape, where he was born.
”The likelihood is that the rest of the family would leave for the Eastern Cape by Monday,” Motlanthe said. – Sapa
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