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ANC Chief Whip Brian Hlongwa refused today to explain his advice to former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu that she go overseas following the deaths of former Esidimeni patients.

I challenged him in my speech on the debate on the Annual Report of the Premier's Office to use the rule allowing personal explanation to explain his comments on Mahlangu in an interview with Power FM earlier this year.

His exact words were as follows:

"I spoke to her privately, you must leave the country, going into exile for two years."

Hlongwa did not take the opportunity to explain his words but instead said he refused to have his agenda set by me.

It is profoundly disturbing that the ANC Gauteng Provincial Executive gave permission to Mahlangu to go overseas and study while the Esidimeni arbitration hearings are going on where her testimony is the most crucial of all for the grieving families.

Hlongwa's advice to Mahlangu to go overseas fuels suspicions that she could further damage the ANC in Gauteng by revealing the true story about the Esidimeni deaths and other dark secrets in her long political career.

Issued by DA