Hero doctor to be omitted from tribute at crash site

Family opposed to memorial following standoff with Netcare

● When a memorial is unveiled and tribute is paid to the crew that died a year ago in a Netcare mercy mission helicopter crash, there will be no mention of Dr Kgopotso Rudolf Mononyane.

His family have asked that he not be named, after a standoff with Netcare.

The highly respected anaesthetist was part of a medical team flying to Durban to transport a critically ill patient in January last year.

He died with Dr Curnick Siyabonga Mahlangu, a cardiothoracic surgeon; Mpho Xaba, a specialist theatre nurse for cardiothoracic and transplant; Sinjin Joshua Farrance, an advanced life support paramedic at Netcare 911; and pilot Mark Stoxreiter, when the helicopter crashed in Winterton, KwaZuluNatal, on January 21.

On Wednesday a memorial will be unveiled at the crash site. But, though the ceremony will honour four of the deceased as well as thousands of other healthcare practitioners who have died of Covid-19, Mononyane’s name will not feature.

“So many things have gone wrong throughout this past year. We are not saying that [Netcare] cannot go ahead with the memorial, we are not trying to stop anything. We are just saying that we don’t want to be part of it,” said Mononyane’s brother, Dalton Mononyane.

Mononyane’s widow, Kgomotso Mononyane, told the Sunday Times there is an ongoing disagreement between the family and Netcare, and she is waiting to hear from them regarding a letter she sent to them earlier this week.

In her letter, which the Sunday Times has seen, she claims that Netcare failed to adequately provide post-trauma support for the Mononyane family; there had been a lack of disclosure and support around the legalities with air ambulance contractor NAC; Netcare had not provided enough access to information around the accident in respect of regulatory institutions; and the company had failed to pay for the Mononyane children’s “extramural endeavours for which Dr Mononyane was supportive and Netcare promised to review”.

She confirmed she had written to the group to state that the “Mononyane and extended family ask that the family name not be used in any form or for any such event or memorial”.

Mononyane was hailed as a hero at the time of the crash. He was part of the team that had tried earlier that morning to save the life of minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu, who died of Covid.

Netcare Group CEO Dr Richard Friedland told the Sunday Times that the memorial unveiling is on track, and there will be no mention of Mononyane out of respect and to honour the wishes of his family.

“Grief is a swamp. We are dealing with enormous trauma and in respect of traumatic death the shock is huge and takes a long time,” Friedland said.

“At the time of the crash, Netcare flew the families of the deceased out to the site, they were careful about returning the bodies and supported the families to the very extent we possibly could.”

He said Netcare had bought the piece of land where the crash happened, had fenced it, secured it and built a memorial on the site. It was to have been unveiled on the anniversary of the crash, but this was delayed because of ongoing heavy rain. He said the intention was to honour all five victims.

“We are going out of our way to honour the requests of the doctor’s family,” said Friedland, adding that the families of the other four victims are satisfied with Netcare’s involvement in the tributes and are engaging in the memorial proceedings.

And while the Mononyane family remains excluded, should they at any point change their mind, they will be included “in a nanosecond”, he said.

The memorial will be “a largely private affair” for the families, after which Netcare will release a press statement.

There has been no finding on the cause of the fatal crash yet, but the family of the pilot is suing helicopter manufacturing giant Bell Textron, claiming it failed to act on a critical maintenance warning emanating from a 2018 crash report. Dalton Mononyane said his family is planning on joining the lawsuit, but could not provide more details.