Life Esidimeni families should make peace with the DA

The families of the victims should be thankful to the DA – especially Jack Bloom – for exposing the tragedy, instead of vilifying the party.

People vandalising the controversial billboard put up by the DA in Johannesburg’s CBD, 17 January 2019. Picture: Screengrab

Every time the Life Esidimeni issue surfaces, old wounds are opened – understandably, as the tragedy devastated not only the affected families but shocked the entire nation when details of how it happened emerged at the arbitration process chaired by former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke.

We didn’t expect incidents such as Esidimeni and the Marikana massacre to happen in this democracy – particularly under a black government, which should through law and the constitution, respect and value human life.

Contrary, under apartheid the life of a black person was not worthy. I won’t even try to count the numerous massacres that occurred under the National Party rule, but the Sharpeville, Langa and the Soweto uprisings stand out.

Not that there were no signs these things could happen post 1994. Where a government is corrupt and governed by cronyism, as happened in the past nine years, leaders lose sense and next they kill innocent people. The various testimonies given at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture say it all: the state was not only captured, but rotten under Jacob Zuma.

When debating matters like Esidimeni and Marikana, sober minds are needed. Only the truth will set us free and truth, objectiveness and fairness should be the name of the game.

The origin of the Esidimeni matter needs to be given the context it deserves. It is true that the deaths of the mental patients came to the public attention because the Democratic Alliance in Gauteng, working with civil society, insisted on investigating the matter.

It came into the public domain because someone informed DA Gauteng MPL Jack Bloom, who asked parliamentary questions about the cancellation of the Life Esidimeni contract from then health MEC Qedani Mahlangu in 2015.

The answers that Mahlangu gave to Bloom’s subsequent questions in 2016, set the ball rolling. She said 36 people died of natural causes. If you don’t know, Bloom, like a bulldog, doesn’t stop chasing the buck until he has caught it.

He unearthed a massive cover-up and the number of those who died was proved to be far more than reported.

Indeed, the death toll grew to 144. Today, Bloom still continues the probe into the plight of 21 patients still missing. The department told me recently at least four have been traced through the social security grant system.

Had it not been for the opposition party, no one would have been known of or traced.

This is where the role of the opposition becomes imperative in a democratic society.

The families of the Esidimeni victims should be thankful to the DA – especially Bloom – instead of vilifying the party.

They need to stop and think before joining the chorus angered by the DA billboard listing the names of their loved ones, as it could be another attempt to seek complete justice for their dead relatives.

As the DA plans to meet the families and perhaps correct things, let’s remember what the Bible says: “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven … a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace”.

Now is the time for peace.