February,07 2017.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Madiba.

Making headlines:
Former Gauteng health MEC to face ANC integrity commission
ANC people's assembly a 'festival of ideas'
And, DA wants Madonsela to represent Esidimeni families

 

Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu will face the ANC’s integrity commission to account for her role in the deaths of 94 mentally ill patients.

Mahlangu resigned last week, shortly before Health Ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba announced that at least 94 mentally ill patients had died after the Gauteng health department transferred about 2 000 of them from the Life Esidimeni facility to 27 unlicensed NGOs, to cut costs.

The ANC’s Gauteng executive committee said yesterday that it was shocked by the deaths and would ensure that the Health Ombudsman’s remedial actions were implemented to ensure something similar did not happen again.

The committee held its first meeting of the year last weekend.

 

The ANC’s people’s assembly will be a festival of ideas and allow the party to listen to its supporters, Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs said yesterday.

The assembly would be held on the Grand Parade in Cape Town on Thursday, when President Jacob Zuma presents his State of the Nation address.

The theme for the assembly would be "radical economic transformation". ANC leaders were mobilising businesses, churches and communities to attend.

 

The Democratic Alliance yesterday called on the Gauteng government to appoint former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela as legal representative for the families of the 94 patients who died in the Esidimeni tragedy.

In a statement, the DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom said Madonsela would ensure that a just settlement was achieved for relatives.

According to Bloom, the DA preferred the appointment of a representative out of a desire to avoid a long, drawn out legal process, as had occurred with the Marikana tragedy.

 

To keep in touch with the news while you are on the move, visit m.polity.org.za

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today