Mourners told of Jackson Mthembu’s final hours

Mthembu was laid to rest in his hometown of Emalahleni in Mpumalanga on Sunday after his untimely passing on Thursday. 

He died on Covid-19 complications at the age of 62. 

Speaking at his send-off at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Ackerville, family and friends lamented their loss. 

An old friend of Mthembu, Makhosini Nkosi, told mourners a tale of a man who remained true to his roots through the years. 

He revealed that he had seen Mthembu before his condition took a turn for the worse, sharing an uncannily joke between two friends about death. 

But a sombre mood befell the church when Sister Mavis Mahlakoane detailed the last hours of Jackson Mthembu’s life. 

Mahlakoane was tasked with tending to Mthembu at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg where he was admitted in the days before his passing. 

“Come Thursday morning I was allocated to another patient and I went him just in just to greet him and he said, ‘Sister Mavis it is difficult today’. I asked what was wrong and he said, ‘This oxygen is so cold’. I felt his face and it was cold,” she explains. 

“That moment he asked for his phone and said, ‘I wonder how my lovely wife is today.’ He went on to say, ‘Cyril will be so disappointed.’.” 

According to Mahlakoane, soon after Mthembu complained of discomfort. 

The medical team at his side continued with fervent efforts to try and stabilise his quickly deteriorating condition.  

Despite the desperate measures to resuscitate Mthembu, he lost the battle against Covid-19.  

“We tried. All the doctors came. The ED department team came. We resuscitated him, he just went down, down, down, down, up until his last breath. That was 13:20. He threw in the towel,” she said. 

Mahlakoane’s blow-by-blow encounter with the late Mthembu has been hailed as evidence of the sacrifice of healthcare workers amid the raging pandemic. 

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