Prophet Paseka Motsoeneng has alleged that three-year-old Latoya Gwam died while being transported to hospital‚ not at his church.

Motsoeneng‚ known as Pastor Mboro‚ spoke to the media on Thursday after visiting Latoya’s mother‚ Nontombi Gwam‚ in Daveyton‚ Ekurhuleni.

“I did the right thing. I called the ambulance first of all‚” he said‚ but questioned the level of care provided by emergency services. He was reacting to a furore over the death of the child on Sunday.

“It was diarrhoea and dehydration. It did not look like the child was dying now when she came (to the church). We called the ambulance. In your mind you would think that the ambulance would take 15 minutes. That’s what was on our minds. The lady was supposed to come with a stretcher (into the church)‚” he said.

He claimed that medical staff waited at the church door. “Stand at the door with a stretcher. You can’t let me carry the child and put her there and we argue for almost 20 minutes for you to put the oxygen.

“Here the problem is negligence. It made them run to you media people and lie and say the child died in the church. The child died on the way to the hospital. Why did they stop the ambulance? The child died‚ then they said stop we can no longer proceed‚ which means the baby died in their hands‚” alleged Mboro.

Mboro was joined at Gwam’s home in Daveyton by acting Gauteng premier Gwen Ramokgopa‚ who also visited Daveyton Main Clinic where the child’s mother claimed she did not get the necessary help for her ailing daughter.

Mboro told reporters that he was charged with common assault and intimidation after the incident at his church with paramedics on Sunday. He was released on bail and when he went to court on Thursday‚ the prosecution did not proceed with a case against him.

Mboro complained that police had not acted on complaints related to the dispute which played out at the church on Sunday.

“You are blaming the mother and you are blaming me. That is all I hear. I don’t hear you ask: ‘Why didn’t the paramedics enter the church when they were requested to do so? Why didn’t they bring a stretcher? Why did they throw an oxygen cylinder and hurt the leg of the baby’s mother?’ Nobody is asking that. Why didn’t they put the oxygen? Why did they drive 70 metres and when the child gasp‚ and now that is when they stopped and put the oxygen?” asked Mboro.

Ramokgopa appealed for all parties to stop blaming one another and await the outcome of an official investigation into the treatment received by the mother and child.