Ik leerde Zororo Makamba 'kennen' door een Zuid-Afrikaanse vriendin, die me geregeld filmpjes stuurde over deze opvallende TV-host. De eerste trigger was natuurlijk zijn achternaam. Maar door de tijd heen raakte ik onder de indruk. Zijn levensverhaal was opvallend, zijn dood evenzeer. Onderstaand kreeg ik opgestuurd en deel ik graag met jullie. Wil je meer zien van hem, kijk dan eens op Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=zororo+makamba
Zororo Makamba was born January 17th, 1990, and by the time he had reached his twenties he was an acclaimed producer, as well as a popular radio and television host. Running parallel to his career was his passion for philanthropy.
By Zoey Carpenter | Madeline Chadehumbe
Zororo celebrated his 30th birthday with a bang in New York alongside his close friends, soon after he boarded a plane heading back to his native Zimbabwe.
If a film editor were to make a video montage of Zororo’s life up to this moment, it would depict a young man who embodied the hope we hold in our hearts when we speak of Africa’s next generation.
However, this wonderful story took a dark and devastating turn into an episode that should never be a part of another human being’s storyline.
Zororo had been in New York for twenty days. When he returned to Zimbabwe, he began having symptoms resembling a cold, or perhaps a mild flu. He went to his general practitioner, and while he was examined for symptoms of Coronavirus, the doctor saw no evidence of it at that time.
Subsequently, Zororo started developing a fever, and his doctor recommended that he be admitted to the hospital. The doctor was especially concerned because Zororo had just had a tumor removed
from directly beneath his left lung the previous November and felt he was at higher risk of experiencing more severe Covid-19 symptoms.
Zororo arrived at Wilkins Hospital by 10:00 am. Samples were collected from him, and our family was told that the results would be forthcoming after six hours, but the results never came. Officials at the hospital said they had not run the tests at that point because they were waiting to receive samples from provincial hospitals so that they could be run all at once.
Since Zororo needed oxygen, we were left with no choice but to bring him home where we could care for him. At about 1:30 or 2:00 am that morning, we received results indicating that he had tested positive for Coronavirus. As a result, Zororo had to be taken back to Wilkins Hospital for treatment, however, we were told that the hospital was not ready to receive Coronavirus patients at that time. It was not until well after 10:00 am that Zororo was finally admitted.
Upon our return to Wilkins Hospital, we learned that there was no ventilator, and no medication to treat Zororo. We set out to find a ventilator for him and managed to obtain a portable unit from a family friend whose relative had used it before he passed away.
Having brought the portable ventilator to the hospital, we encountered yet another challenge; it had an American plug. The staff at the hospital told us to go out and find an adapter. I then went out to purchase an adapter for the plug, only to discover that there were no electrical outlets in Zororo’s room. When we produced an extension cord and pleaded with the medical staff for permission to use it to plug in the unit, they refused.
We then appealed to Health Minister Obadiah Moyo, requesting permission to transfer Zororo to another facility (Health Point), since Wilkins Hospital was obviously not prepared to care for him. Despite our desperate situation, Mr. Moyo denied our request. Instead, the minister suggested that we take Zororo to a trauma center in Borrowdale.
Before we could do so, however, the Health Ministry persuaded the owner of Borrowdale Trauma Centre to call us. The owner proceeded to advise me that he could come and set up an ICU at Wilkins for Zororo, complete with a ventilator and monitors, but that we would need to pay $120 000 USD for the use of the equipment. He added that once Zororo completed treatment and made a recovery, we would have to donate the equipment to Wilkins Hospital.
In the meantime, nurses would only visit him every two hours because they were afraid of exposing themselves to his condition. We ended up having to call the nurse’s station from home to inform them that Zororo was in distress and that his oxygen supply had been depleted, as they had failed to check up on him.
In response, the nurses told us that we were “bothering” them. My mother and his fiancée had been parked outside the hospital continually for two days, and were not allowed in. In light of their seeming inability to care for Zororo, we even requested permission to bring him home so that we could care for him ourselves. This last request, too, was denied.
In the days before we lost him, Zororo kept telling us how scared and alone he was. He said that the staff at the hospital was refusing to help him. He became so frustrated at one point that he tried to walk out of the facility himself and had to be restrained. Our family ended up having to cross the border into South Africa just to procure some medicine for him.
We did manage to find some at a local pharmacy on the day that he passed away, but by then it was too late. Whatever care he was provided, and whatever assistance we ourselves could provide, could
not save him.”
Here a promising young man’s journey was cut tragically short. The experiences he could have, the contributions he could make, and the people he could help, none of it can ever come to fruition. The true tragedy in his untimely death was that it highlighted the clear inadequacies in the system- this death could have been so easily prevented. This sad loss was a combination of missteps, mismanagement, and outright negligence for those charged with his care.
The medical system that was supposed to protect and care for him was what ultimately sealed his fate. So many citizens suffer the brunt of a lack of preparedness, medicine, equipment, proper care and facilities. In exchange for these shortcomings, they also find themselves facing an excess of bureaucratic red tape, and ferocious treatment costs.
The Zimbabwean people, as well as many other people around world, need to know about Zororo’s story, so that at least his death can help institute change.
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| Image from his funeral |
As a further gesture and an appeal for your assistance in this most difficult time, donations of any ventilators to Zimbabwe may be made in Zororo Makamba’s name. Let us never forget the plight highlighted by his death. Contact: zororolegacy@gmail.com
Or: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ppe-for-zimbabwe-doctorsampnursesfighting-
covid19?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_linktip&
utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet