Zambian doctors have ordered the ailing ex-president Frederick Chiluba sent to South Africa for treatment after his heart condition deteriorated, a Chiluba spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Emmanuel Mwamba said Chiluba, who was in court on Tuesday attending a graft trial of his wife Regina in Ndola, 300km north of Lusaka, and would be flown to South Africa after local doctors said he needed immediate specialist treatment.
Mwamba said Chiluba’s cardiac problem had worsened over the last few weeks and that the 64-year-old former leader needed to see his doctors in South Africa before a scheduled treatment review at a Johannesburg clinic in early August.
”Doctors have said his condition has deteriorated and that he needs to go to South Africa for immediate treatment and review,” Mwamba told Reuters by telephone from Ndola.
Mwamba said it was not clear whether the court would adjourn Regina Chiluba’s trial on Tuesday.
”The government has competed arrangements for his evacuation and he will leave as soon as the trial for his wife is adjourned because she performs nursing duties for him,” Mwamba said of Regina, who is a trained nurse.
Chiluba refused to go for treatment in South Africa in March after authorities declined to allow his wife to accompany him, and he only left after Regina was also permitted to go.
In May, Chiluba spent five days in a Zambian hospital after he collapsed at his Lusaka home.
Chiluba, his wife and a number of associates are the subject of graft trials over allegations they stole large amounts of money during his 10 years in power from 1991 to 2001. – Reuters