Maimane to hold Life Esidimeni memorial outside Premier Makhura’s office

Democratic Alliance (DA) has announced that its leader, Mmusi Maimane, would be holding a memorial service for those who lost their lives in the Life Esidimeni healthcare scandal on Thursday outside Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s office.

The memorial, which the party said would be held alongside members of the families of victims of the tragedy, will take place at 10:30 am outside the office of the premier in Mary Fitzgerald Square.

“We cannot allow the failing ANC to get away with murder,” a press release from the party says.

READ MORE: Twenty-one Life Esidimeni patients still missing

The press release also says the DA’s Jack Bloom tried to warn the “uncaring ANC government” in 2015 about the risks of the health department’s cancellation of its contract with Life Healthcare Esidimeni, which culminated in the death of 143 people.

“Under a DA government, this atrocity would never occur,” the statement claims.

The party seems undeterred by the backlash it received for a billboard which listed names of the victims of the Life Esidimeni tragedy as well as those who lost their lives at Marikana and school children who drowned after falling in pit toilets, along with the slogan “The ANC is killing us”.

The billboard was torn down, allegedly by family members of some of the victims of Life Esidimeni. It has since been restored, with Maimane telling TimesLive that it “must remain“.

Other family members of the victims are reportedly considering legal action.

READ MORE: Not the first time a ‘truth-speaking’ billboard is vandalised – DA

It was also slammed on social media, with some accusing the party of using people’s pain to score political points, and the ANC has laid a complaint with the Independent Electoral Committee (IEC), also releasing a statement saying the billboard exposes the “bankruptcy of the opposition’s politics and the levels of desperation they had descended to”.

And, The Sunday Times made Maimane ‘Mampara of the Week’ – a dubious honour given to someone in the news cycle the publication feels is the week’s worst offender – saying the billboard exhibited “the offensive idea of appropriating the names” of victims of tragedies “in pursuit of votes” and that Maimane should “apologise profusely”.

The billboard was, however, defended by Maimane, who told PowerFM it was meant to “highlight some of the wrongs from the ANC-led government,” as well as by party spokesperson Solly Malatsi, who said it was meant to be about “justice and commemoration for the many South Africans who became the victims of an indifferent, uncaring, and cruel government and how so many other painful and horrific events should never have happened in a democratic South Africa.”

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