GOING IN CIRCLES: Lira, Apac and Amalatar councillors survey the site to bury Obote in Abyeibuti, Akokoro

By Felix Osike and Allen Mutono
in Johannesburg

RECORDS at the Morningside Medi-Clinic in South Africa, where former President Apollo Milton Obote died on Monday, indicate the total cost of treatment was 127,006 rand (about sh40m) which the Government has to pay.

The Government has also received an invoice of $105,000 (sh196m) from an air charter company in Johannesburg to fly the body to Entebbe via Lusaka.

Although the body has been moved to Doves Funeral home in Braamfontein in central Johannesburg for a funeral service on Friday afternoon, there is still an outstanding balance at the clinic of R35,006.

Sources said R92,000 was paid when Obote was admitted last month. It is not clear who paid the money. His nephew, Engineer Albert Ogwal, signed as a guarantor.

State minister for information Dr. Nsaba Buturo said on Wednesday that the Government would meet all the expenses from South Africa to Obote’s final resting place at Akokoro, Apac district.

By Friday morning, some thorny issues like the charter of the aircraft to transport the body to Lusaka, Zambia and later to Entebbe, were still unresolved. The Ugandan High Commissioner to South Africa, Joseph Tomusange, at 8:30 local time (9:30am) called Inter-Air company, based in Johannesburg to ask for a quotation. Garry Toko of the Inter-Air Company, said the sh196m would cover landing charges, airport taxes and fuel from Johannesburg to Entebbe.

The air company has demanded upfront payment of their fees.

By press time, a one-hour funeral service was due to be held at Doves Funeral Home in Braamfontein. Foreign affairs state minister for international cooperation Okello Oryem was slated to represent the Government at the service. Party officials, relatives and friends were to view the body on Friday afternoon.

Obote’s casket will leave on Saturday for Zambia where he has been under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 1985.

Obote, a two-time president and the leader of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party, died of kidney failure on October 10, ending a 20-year exile.

The body will stay in Zambia till next week to allow his friends and government officials in Lusaka to pay their last respects.

The body is expected in Uganda later next week. The burial date has not been fixed. The Government will accord him a state funeral in the spirit of reconciliation. Relatives are also pursuing his benefits and other assets he left behind.