The distraught mother of a 31-year-old woman who died on the pavement outside an East London clinic this week gave a harrowing account of her daughter’s last hours. Ntombizabantu Mbalo said she took her daughter‚ Tandazwa‚ to the Ndende Clinic in Duncan Village on Monday afternoon for an asthma attack.Despite her condition worsening‚ nurses there allegedly discharged her.Tandazwa‚ a mother of two‚ died a short while later on the pavement‚ locked out of the clinic.“She said she could no longer breathe and could no longer go on‚” said Mbalo. “She could not walk. She was exhausted and weak. She just lay on the pavement while we waited for transport to take us back home.”The department of health said there was a prima facie case against the nursing staff for failing to follow due care of a “very ill patient”.Mbalo‚ 56‚ said she and Tandazwa arrived at the clinic just before 4pm‚ half an hour before its scheduled closing time. Two nurses were on duty. “They were preparing to go home. I told them my daughter was not well.“They shouted at me for bringing my daughter so late for such a small problem as an asthma attack‚” she alleged.“They then gave her an oxygen mask‚ an injection and six tablets that she swallowed on the spot. They then told us to go home‚” said Mbalo.She encouraged Tandazwa to get up and walk but she was too ill and weak.“I then borrowed a wheelchair‚ but the nurse told me the wheelchair does not leave the clinic. She said I must carry my daughter on my back to the street where we were going to get transport‚” Mbalo said.Carefully lifting Tandazwa on to her back‚ the elderly woman walked slowly from the facility as the nurses allegedly hurried her out saying they wanted to “lock up and leave”.“I stopped at the gate because I was tired from carrying my daughter. The nurse approached me again and told me to leave the clinic premises as she wanted to lock the gate‚” said Mbalo.The nurses left soon after.“My daughter closed her eyes for the last time and died even before the nurse’s car disappeared‚” said Mbalo.Although Tandazwa died around 5pm‚ her body was only collected by state staff mortuary three hours later.“I covered her in a blanket and sat with her until 8pm‚” said Mbalo.Department of health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said: “We are following due labour relation processes. For them (nurses) to close the clinic and gate and the patient to shortly die thereafter just outside the gate cannot be justified.”On Tuesday‚ operations at the clinic were disrupted when a group of 200 residents stormed into the clinic and demanded the nurses involved be fired‚ accusing them of violating the “batho pele” (people first) principle.Resident Nyameka Ngwendu said nurses – who had locked themselves inside the facility – did not care.“The clinic opens at 7am and nurses arrive at 8am but only start work at 9am. They will attend to three patients and go on a tea break for an hour because they are gossiping‚” she said.Emergency patients arriving for treatment after 1pm were regularly told to come back the following day‚ she added. - RDM News Wire, Dispatchlive..