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The ruling ANC owes it to the victims of the Life Esidimeni tragedy to investigate the impact of cadre deployment, affirmative action and black empowerment on state functions. The impact of this on the public health sector in particular must be investigated. AfriForum made this appeal today in a letter to President Jacob Zuma, Gwede Mantashe, Secretary-General of the ANC, and Aaron Motsoaledi, Minister of Health, after it became known that 94 psychiatric patients passed away due to dehydration, diarrhoea, epilepsy, heart attacks and possible other reasons.

Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum, cites that cadre deployment, affirmative action and black empowerment has a destructive effect on the work of all state departments. “The result of this is that appointments and contracts are done on the grounds of political connections and that appointments are made without regarding competency and merits. Black empowerment is supposed to create opportunities for black people, while it in practise is often used as an instrument to make appointments based on the grounds of political preference. The inevitable result of this is that state functions decline, which is to the detriment of the entire country.”

“The ruling party must ask itself how far it will go to implement this destructive policy,” says Roets.

In 2014 more than 300 people in the Boitumelong informal settlement near Bloemhof were hospitalised due to water pollution after the municipal services collapsed. Three babies passed away due to this. The South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) found that this crisis took place as the result of affirmative action.

Issued by Afriforum