Roswithia Kauzuu (30) had been transported by ambulance from Swakopmund that morning.

The ambulance broke down along the road and Kauzuu was stranded there for most of the day.

While the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health and Social Services Dr Kalumbi Shangula had no knowledge of the incident, the Principal Health Officer at the Swakopmund State Hospital, Dr Barhe HaileMariam, yesterday dismissed any notion that Kauzuu's condition might have deteriorated because of being stranded in the ambulance.

"The condition of the patient was not an emergency," he said.

"She had a chronic illness and had been in and out of the hospital."

Kauzuu had in fact been a private patient, Hailemariam said, but because her family could not afford the services of International SOS, her mother had requested a State ambulance to transport her to Windhoek.

While the ambulance was standing next to the road close to Karibib, the Mayor of the nearby town, Arandis, drove past on his way to Windhoek.

The mayor's entourage reportedly stopped at the scene, and was asked to go to the clinic at Karibib to ask for help.

Approached for comment yesterday, Mayor Daniel Muhuura said that he arrived at the scene in the afternoon, and was told by the ambulance crew that they had been stranded there since 11h00.

"They told us that they had a passenger who was seriously ill, and asked us to go to the clinic to inform them that the ambulance had broken down."

The Mayor would later learn that the "seriously ill" patient was his brother-in-law's sister.

The deceased's brother, Epson Kauzuu, who lives in Uis, says his family had been waiting for his sister's arrival in Windhoek.

"When I phoned at around six o'clock (18h00), she was still not in Windhoek."

He said his mother told him later that Kauzuu had died an hour after arriving at the hospital.

According to the Windhoek State Mortuary, Kauzuu was pronounced dead at 22h15.

The ambulance in question belonged to the Walvis Bay State Hospital, Hailemariam said yesterday, as the one allocated to the Swakopmund Hospital had been in use elsewhere.

Walvis Bay State Hospital Control Officer Nicky Luanda yesterday said that the ambulance in question had just returned from being serviced two days earlier, and that the technical problem was sorted out the next day.

"It was just something electrical," he said, adding that the vehicle had only completed one trip before Thursday's incident.

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