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Arnold Tembo and his late wife, Joan.
- A 70-year-old man was arrested for negligent driving while running to get to his dying wife.
- He begged the traffic officers to escort him to her and arrest him afterward, but to no avail.
- When he was released, his wife had already died.
A 70-year-old man from Cape Town who was desperate to see his dying wife for the last time was arrested for negligent driving on his way to her and by the time he was released, it was too late.
Arnold Tembo said that his wife Joan contracted Covid-19 and recovered. But doctors discovered that she had water in her lungs, and eventually she had to be hospitalized.
Due to Covid-19, many hospitals do not allow visits.
She called her doctor on March 24 and asked if she could be discharged from the hospital after he hadn’t seen her in over a month. However, the doctor told him that his wife was in critical condition and could not be discharged.
“I insisted on going to the hospital, but the doctor said that by the time I got there it would be too late,” Tembo told News24. “I got in my car and ran to the Lentegeur Hospital.”
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He ended up speeding, he admitted, and traffic offers eventually took him off the road and arrested for negligent driving.
He begged them to have mercy, asked them to accompany him to the hospital to see his wife, and told them they could arrest him later. But her pleas fell on deaf ears.
“I just wanted to hear his last words,” Tembo said while sobbing.
He said he spent between two and three hours at the Manenberg police station while his statement was taken, and was only released around 4:00 p.m.
“She was gone. She was gone,” he yelled as he recounted his story.
“I’m heartbroken. I know people keep telling me to be strong,” he said. “But how can you be strong when you lose someone with whom you have shared 36 years?”
Tembo is scheduled to appear in Athlone Magistrates Court for the negligent driving case on April 7.
