Johannesburg - After experiencing the dizzying adrenaline and excitement of reaching the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, the team that had walked beside Gugu Zulu and his wife Letshego descended to the news of his death, possibly due to meningitis.
Speaking to The Star from the base camp where Zulu’s condition turned from bad to worse, The Star news editor, Omphitlhetse Mooki gave a harrowing account of Zulu’s last hours alive.
“We were supposed to all summit together tonight (Monday night). We’d been from one base camp to another and we reached base camp last night (Sunday night) where we were supposed to sleep before we summit,” said Mooki, coughing over a bad line.
Read: Tributes pour in for larger-than-life Gugu Zulu
“I was sharing a room with Letshego and Gugu and nine others and Gugu was not okay that night, something to do with his sinuses. The doctor came and checked him and put a drip on him. His wife was by his side the entire time.”
Zulu’s condition deteriorated quickly after they all called it a night. “He was breathing loudly because of his chest problems. It was around 8pm when we switched off the lights to sleep that we heard his breathing patterns change. We thought it was sleep apnea but one of the ladies in our room still went to call the doctor who was in the next room.”
Read: Gugu Zulu dies on #Trek4Mandela hike up Kilimanjaro
The doctor checked Zulu and said he must be taken to the hospital immediately.
“He said it was meningitis,” Mooki added.
Doctors have said they were still determining the official cause of Zulu's death.
As the group were near to the summit, helicopters could not land. “So porters had to rush him to the next camp on a stretcher. It was about 9 kms away.”
Mooki said the all round mood was sombre since they came back from the peak. “We were told the news just after we returned to the base camp following the summit. People are very sad because they were a loving and lovely couple. Letshego even had a banner prepared that said “Adventure Couple”, which she was going to show when they reached the summit.
The mood was low, especially since another woman who was climbing with the team was also got admitted to hospital.
“She also didn’t summit. She was asthmatic but had been cleared to climb,” Mooki added.
The group have begun their descent and are planning to fly back home on Wednesday.
* For more on this story read The Star on Tuesday.
The Star