{"id":28982,"date":"2023-05-23T11:18:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T11:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko"},"modified":"2023-05-23T11:18:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T11:18:00","slug":"tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko","title":{"rendered":"Tributes pour in for Dr Phooko"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Dr Motloheloa Phooko, who died on Monday morning at the age of 83, will be remembered as an astute medical practitioner who was dedicated to the development of the health sector in Lesotho.
\nFriends and colleagues in the medical field and in politics said the late Dr Phooko worked hard to push for investments in Lesotho\u2019s primary health care system when he served as health minister in the early 2000\u2019s.
\nThey also applauded the programmes he introduced to decongest public hospitals.
\nThey said during his stint as health minister, Dr Phooko fought for the training of nurses and doctors with the aim to respond to the dire shortage of professional staff across all health facilities.
\nDr Phooko worked as a medical doctor after graduating from medical school in Israel in the early 1970\u2019s until 2002 when he joined active politics.
\nA staunch member of Ntsu Mokhehle\u2019s Basutoland Congress Party (BCP), Dr Phooko broke away with him when he formed the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) in 1997.
\nWhen his leader and close relative, former Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili appointed him the Health Minister in 2002, health services were in disarray countrywide.
\nHe worked hard to put in place structures to fix Lesotho\u2019s health sector by strengthening primary health care in the districts.
\nDr Phooko strongly believed that health care starts at the village stage hence his insistence that it is where investment should be channelled.
\nHe was reassigned to the Public Service Ministry and later to the Office of the Prime Minister.
\nHe is credited with rolling out the nursing assistants\u2019 training programme which unfortunately was terminated shortly after he left the Health Ministry to become Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Office.
\nHe had also opened two training facilities in Ts\u030ca-Kholo, Mafeteng, and in Qacha\u2019s Nek which too were discontinued shortly after he left the ministry.
\nDr Phooko had also started the clinic-based training programmes for medical doctors, taking a leaf from the Cuban health training model.
\nFormer Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohlabi Tsekoa, said he knew Dr Phooko as a dedicated health practitioner even before they joined the government.
\nTsekoa said when he was still a teacher at St Agnes High School decades ago, he used to take his patients to Dr Phooko and that was when their friendship began.
\nHe said Dr Phooko was very meticulous and scrupulous when looking after his patients.
\n\u201cHe was an active doctor,\u201d Tsekoa said.
\nThe two were to later meet when Dr Phooko joined active politics.
\nTsekoa said Dr Phooko worked hard for the growth of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) in the early 2000\u2019s.
\nHe said Dr Phooko was a disciplined cadre of the party who wanted the same for all party activists.
\nTsekoa said Dr Phooko was adamant that the LCD should have strong ties with supporters at the grassroots level.
\nHe recalled a time when the two were part of the government\u2019s delegation to India which was headed by Mosisili.
\nTsekoa said Dr Phooko delivered a memorable presentation about Lesotho and the potential for cooperation with India in health issues.
\nTsekoa said Dr Phooko was always prepared during Cabinet meetings and would offer incisive comments with clarity of thought.
\n\u201cHe was able to listen to other people and he gave other people a chance to speak,\u201d he said.
\nHe said Dr Phooko could analyse matters clearly and would be able to amplify issues that would have been discussed at any platform.
\nHe said Dr Phooko worked hard to close the existing gap between Cabinet and civil servants.
\n\u201cHe was always quiet but was very productive,\u201d Tsekoa said.
\nWhen there was political tension in the LCD, Tsekoa said Dr Phooko fought tirelessly to mend the cracks.
\nBut he failed.
\nWhen he lost the battle, he left with a few others and formed the Reformed Congress of Lesotho (RCL) led by Keketso Rants\u030co.
\nHe served as the RCL deputy leader until his death on Monday.
\nFormer Minister of Sports, \u2019Mathabiso Lepono, said her relationship with Dr Phooko stretched as far back as when they were still young. The two later served as ministers under Mosisili in the early 2000\u2019s.
\nLepono said Dr Phooko was driven by a vision for development.
\nShe said Dr Phooko was the brains behind the building of the Ministry of Health headquarters in Maseru.
\n\u201cThere was no money but he did his best to help the ministry have such a wonderful building,\u201d Lepono said.
\nShe said Dr Phooko was always dressed to the nines.
\n\u201cHe was a neat man. He was also soft-spoken\u201d.
\nLepono said Dr Phooko had a vision to take the Ministry of Health to the next level.
\nShe said Dr Phooko had a hand in the construction of Queen \u2019Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH).
\nShe said Dr Phooko wanted to transform Queen Elizabeth II Hospital into a district hospital that would refer patients to Queen \u2019Mamohato Memorial Hospital.
\nThe RCL leader Keketso Rants\u030co said she bonded with Dr Phooko when he was still practising medicine before he joined active politics.
\nShe said the death of Dr Phooko has left her devastated.
\nRants\u030co said she is the one who encouraged Dr Phooko to contest the parliamentary elections in 2002 under the LCD.
\n\u201cHe won that constituency,\u201d she said, adding that she was a youth in the LCD at the time in the Lithabaneng constituency.
\nRants\u030co said Dr Phooko was her pillar of strength and was always supportive.
\n\u201cDr Phooko was different from other people,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cHe was very close to me. He supported me wholeheartedly until he died.\u201d
\nRants\u030co said no one dared to contest against Dr Phooko in internal elections for the deputy leader\u2019s position because they all respected him immensely.
\nDr Phooko\u2019s wife, \u2019Maphooko Phooko, who was a pharmacist, died in November last year. He is survived by two grown-up children, Phooko and Puleng.
\nPuleng said her father had been battling ill-health since 2021.
\n\u201cHe was diagnosed with cancer,\u201d she said, adding that he went for chemotherapy for six months.
\nPuleng said her father also developed heart and kidney problems.
\n\u201cWe thought the chemotherapy treatment had affected him negatively,\u201d she said.
\nShe said her late father had been in and out of hospital for months. She said her father died at his home in Lithabaneng in Maseru.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Dr Motloheloa Phooko, who died on Monday morning at the age of 83, will be remembered as an astute medical practitioner who was dedicated to the development of the health sector in Lesotho. Friends and colleagues in the medical field and in politics said the late Dr Phooko worked hard to push […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[233,246,245],"class_list":["post-28982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nTributes pour in for Dr Phooko - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tributes pour in for Dr Phooko\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Lesotho. Dr Motloheloa Phooko, who died on Monday morning at the age of 83, will be remembered as an astute medical practitioner who was dedicated to the development of the health sector in Lesotho. Friends and colleagues in the medical field and in politics said the late Dr Phooko worked hard to push […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-23T11:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Tributes pour in for Dr Phooko\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-23T11:18:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko\"},\"wordCount\":1071,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/Beigi1684828181.021975Phooko-3.psdww_-590x354-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dr-phooko\",\"name\":\"Tributes pour in for Dr Phooko - 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