Harrowing last moments of Chef Lentswe's life shared with mourners

Celebrity chef and media personality Lentswe Bhengu-Mafoko’s last moments were a whirlwind of confusion, fear, hope and acceptance for family members who were with him throughout that fateful day.

There was confusion at the sudden rate with which his health deteriorated; fear when he had three seizures and had to be resuscitated countless times in hospital; hope every time he regained consciousness and became responsive; and acceptance when the doctors finally stopped resuscitating him having tried their best.

This emerged at Bhengu-Mafoko’s funeral ceremony at Amanzimtoti civic hall on Wednesday as his sisters Itumeleng and Swankie Mafoko detailed the moments leading to his demise.

A week ago, friends, fans and colleagues of the 37-year-old woke up to the sad news of his passing. The Bhengu and Mafoko family statements said he had died at the Sandton Mediclinic on Tuesday after “suffering a short illness”.

Addressing the nature of the illness and the events of that day, Lentswe’s younger sister said he had been complaining of stomach ache and had been vomiting for three weeks but none of the things that he complained about were locatable to the physiotherapist who was helping him.

“When I got into his house (on Tuesday) I found him sleeping on cushions and he complained about stomach ache. The night before he had had diarrhoea and was vomiting, which drained him completely ... He insisted on getting a drip which he used every time he felt tired, to boost his energy,” she said.

She said they realised the seriousness when he started complaining about numbness in his fingers and excruciating pain.

“As we were helping him put on his socks and shoes he said he wasn’t feeling what we were doing to his feet. We realised it was serious and called an Uber to take him to hospital but when we had to get into the lift he couldn’t walk much. He would take one or two steps and fall,” she said.

“He was in pain and sweating as if it was 37 degrees. Meanwhile, we had called an ambulance and it hadn’t come so we called an Uber.”

Swankie said he had his first of three seizures that day when they got to the door of his apartment and helped him back to consciousness. She said the Uber driver arrived but refused to take a person in his condition so they called a friend who helped them get to hospital.

“We took him to the elevator and it looked like he was going to have another seizure and we realised we couldn't keep moving him like that so we called our elders. In the elevator, he asked to lie down and after some time he looked at my baby brother and asked, 'Bro, am I going to die?’ My brother told him he was going to be fine,” she said.

“There was a point we prayed together while waiting for the ambulance. When we got downstairs he had his second seizure. This one was more difficult ... and still there was no ambulance in sight.”

She said a car finally arrived to take him to hospital and he had regained consciousness and was talking on the way, telling them he couldn’t feel his limbs.

“When we got to the hospital, I don’t know whether it was fear because when you’re in hospital you’re faced with the reality of death. He said to the people who were assisting him ‘you know I don’t like being here, I can’t even feel my legs’ and they laughed and assured him it would be OK.

“He had a third seizure a few moments later and he was helped. From that moment they tried to check his blood pressure and stuff and nurses asked us to stay because we were the only ones he seemed to respond to.”

Itumeleng Mafoko, Lentswe’s older sister, caught up with them when they were already in hospital. She said Swankie explained to the doctors that he was vomiting in the morning but on the weekend he was OK.

“The doctor said:  ‘We’ve given him adrenaline and put him on a ventilator but it doesn’t look good.’ We asked him explain what that meant because we had brought in a person who was dehydrated and vomiting. He explained that they had done a few tests to check for signs of life and from the tests they couldn’t pick up any signs of brain activity ... but they had to resuscitate him,” she said.

The siblings were allowed to see him when he was already on a ventilator but he was conscious and responsive.

“When it’s your brother or relative and they tell you ‘we don’t see any signs of brain activity’ you don’t actually connect what’s going on. You just say keep working.”

She said about 10 minutes later the doctor came in and they could see that there was an emergency. He told them they had resuscitated Lentswe again and reached the highest level of adrenaline that they could. 

Then the family got the devastating news: “The doctor said the hospital had taken a decision to not resuscitate Lentswe again.

“I asked the doctor to try one more time. They asked if that was a statement from the family and I confirmed it was, saying, ‘Whatever it takes, just give us one more time.’

“We then called Mama Dawn (Lentswe’s mother), who was aware that he was in hospital but, like everyone, had no idea how critical he was,” she said.

“I could hear on the phone that Mama Dawn was talking as if Lentswe was just sick, so we made a video call so she could see him. She prayed and asked to see his eyes. She prayed and talked to her son and said all the words that a mother would think of saying at a time like that.

“We didn’t know that as Mama Dawn was talking to him, he was slipping away, until the doctor whispered that it was time to resuscitate him again.”

That was around 9pm.

“At this time another specialist physician came in, an older man. The first doctor was young and he did his best but the older man had a grounding presence for us and when he spoke we could feel it. He asked what was happening because it wasn’t making sense to him as the tests showed Lentswe was healthy but his haemoglobin levels were very low and that could be a sign of brain swelling, said the doctor.”

“Because they had done the last resuscitation, we found renewed hope when the older man said ‘let’s give him a chance, this is a young man’. He asked to take him for a brain scan because he was stabilising at that point and they had not been able to do it before because it was too risky.”

They moved him from ER to where they did the scan and brought him back alive, Itumeleng said.

“They reported that there was some swelling on the brain, as they had suspected, and it didn’t look good. They put him in ICU with one family member. We were all happy that at least he would be admitted but after 20 minutes, I suspected something was up because they had gone too long with no update,” she said.

“My sister showed me a message from the family member who had gone inside, saying ‘they’ve decided to stop'. I walked towards the ICU and approached the doctor. He said: ‘I’m so sorry, we lost him. I tried, I thought we still had a chance with him.’”

On behalf of the Mafoko family, Itumeleng thanked his mother for the job she had done raising him and for giving her blessings when he decided to change careers from accountant to chef.

Having spent his early years in KwaMashu, north of Durban, Bhengu-Mafoko moved to Durban central with his family where he spent the rest of his childhood.

He matriculated in 2002 as a 17-year-old at Durban High school where he excelled in dramatic arts before doing a part-time management studies course at Unisa. He then worked at Marriott investment managers in Durban before relocating to Cape Town in 2004 where he worked for companies including Allan Gray and Old Mutual. 

He fully embraced his love for food in 2010 when he enrolled and later graduated from the Culinary Academy in the Cape winelands.

Chef Lentswe starred in and presented multiple TV shows, including US-commissioned series Africa on a Plate and local show KFC Taste Kitchen. He co-hosted the BBC Lifestyle show The Great South African Bake Off and Flava Queens. He was also on Mzansi Magic’s Celebrity Mystery Box.

Lentswe was set to launch his cookbook, Africa on a Plate, next year and recently made an appearance on Metropolitan's four-episode TV show We Start 2023 Stronger on Mzansi Magic.

He was laid to rest at his maternal home in Adam’s Mission, outside Durban.

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