MISHECK Bonshe's death will haunt President Rupiah Banda, George Mpombo has said.
And Mpombo described the government's excuse on its failure to evacuate Bonshe as a complete load of political rubbish.

Reacting to chief government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha's statement that it was unwarranted for him to allege that President Banda and his administration neglected Bonshe, Mpombo said Bonshe's death should be a source of great shame for President Banda and the government in general.

“They actually didn't do the right thing, it will haunt them. Medical doctors in our team recommended that Mr Bonshe be evacuated to South Africa, a decision which government turned down,” Mpombo said. “They are the guys who made the decision in the system, it will haunt them. You can't put a value to life, life whether one is a cleaner, whether one is what and what, life is supposed to be treated equally. So what Shikapwasha is saying is a lot of rubbish, a complete load of rubbish.”

He said the government's excuse on its failure to evacuate Bonshe was full of political hogwash which did not make sense.

“He Lt Gen Shikapwasha is unleashing an amalgam of half truths on the people. It's a lot of sour grapes, a lot of political hogwash, completely political rubbish because he must understand that as a defence minister then, I was a very senior member who knew the operations of government very well,” Mpombo said. “I want to remind Shikapwasha that as former defence minister I was a senior minister and fully aware of all government operations. That's why I had to inform State House so that State House could issue directives to the Ministry of Health.

“As leader of the delegation, what I was required to do is to inform the President so that he could put in motion instructions to effect the evacuation of Mr Bonshe from Mbabane into South Africa.”
He dismissed Lt Gen Shikapwasha's explanation insisting that as delegation leader he followed the government procedure.

“That's why the minister of health himself Kapembwa Simbao phoned me, who said he was going to organise the evacuation exercise and they later suspended it. We had undertaken all the exhaustive steps that Shikapwasha is talking about because we were doing this one in conjunction with the High Commission in South Africa,” said Mpombo. “We fully involved the High Commission in South Africa. We had even discussed the question of driving into Johannesburg but we could not do it because there was no hospital arranged for this purpose. Even if we got Mr Bonshe into Johannesburg, which hospital was he going to? It's complete hogwash and Shikapwasha should be ashamed of himself. We followed all the channels and it was just failure by Shikapwasha.”

On Friday, Lt Gen Shikapwasha said he found it strange for Mpombo to blame the government and President Banda over the untimely death of Bonshe.

He said it was surprising that Mpombo as a delegation leader of the Zambian team which travelled to Mbabane, Swaziland for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) security and politics meeting could not arrange for Bonshe's evacuation to South Africa for specialised treatment.

Bonshe, 65, who was Mufumbwe MMD member of parliament and home affairs deputy minister died last weekend in Nigeria where he had gone for prayers. He was buried on Friday in Mufumbwe.