BRUCE'S LIST: The ‘94’: was it criminal neglect or dolus eventualis?

Bruce’s List: A guide to informed reads.

When I heard that former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu had resigned after seeing the health ombudsman’s damning report on the lives lost in an operation Mahlangu headed to transfer mentally ill patients out of full-care institutions into nonexistent “NGOs” (they were little more than private homes keen on a few bucks from the provincial government) I rather casually tweeted some words in praise of her resignation and, as I have met her once or twice, I said I was “proud” of her. I got taken to task on Twitter and then read the Ombudsman’s report and, boy, do I take it all back. Sure, political resignations are all too rare and should be welcomed when they happen. But the report details the endless amount of times Mahlangu was warned about the result of what she was doing and the endless number of times she lied to families and interest groups. It is sickening. Mentally ill people require experienced and watchful care. Mahlangu was consigning them into the care of amateurs. At least 94 people died as a direct result of Mahlangu’s decision and I rather like the suggestion in this piece from The Conversation which argues for some further charge to be laid. I remember the doctors who attended Steve Biko before he died were struck off the medical role. Mahlangu’s top medical officials should face the same test. And as the political principal, having been told time and again what would happen to the patients if they were removed from experienced care, could she not be prosecuted for murder dolus eventualis as Oscar Pistorius was?

Meanwhile the skies over SA are black with the wings of political chickens coming home to roost. Change, big change, is in the air. President Jacob Zuma has made it clear he wants finance minister Pravin Gordhan out of treasury. But when? This week? A few days before the budget on February 22? Does he have a replacement? Brian Molefe? Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma? Will it be a big reshuffle? Will it happen at all? Does he have the strength? If you’re into the guessing and second-guessing and intuiting that makes South African politics fun to follow you’ll love this piece from Stephen Grootes. I think he covers just about every variable my brain can manage this early in the morning.

Dlamini-Zuma, of course, has already started campaigning, with the ANC Women’s League simply ignoring instructions from HQ to desist from campaigning for her. There was another large gathering for her this weekend and I’ve included this report about it in my List today because it contains something I’ve never seen before — an instance where a candidate for the highest office in the land actually speaks, out loud, about a policy idea. You’ll have to get through the bumph about SA being “ready” for a woman president. But Dlamini-Zuma actually seems to have said something about energy policy. Given that she’s Jacob Zuma’s successor candidate, her position is not surprising. She told the crowd at what seems to have been an interminable gathering not to listen to people who said SA should only have renewable power. Er, that was it, but I thought it interesting nonetheless. It’s one more thing we know about her. What does Cyril Ramaphosa think of the coming nuclear deal? No-one knows. 

Finally, Donald Trump continues to cause mayhem whenever he opens his mouth or reaches for a cellphone. But I just loved this piece in The New York Times, written as straight as possible, about what is actually going on inside the Trump White House. It turns out it’s quite weird. Trump likes to watch television. Remember “Being There”, that Peter Sellers movie where he played a simple, naive gardener who got taken seriously by big political money? He liked to watch too. Trump’s been spending evenings alone (his wife and youngest child are still in New York). But the weirdest thing is that he seems not to be reading all of the executive orders he’s been signing, including the one which promoted Steve Bannon (the guy who is writing the executive orders) in the National Security Council. Chaos.