DA using Esidimeni to boost poll returns

THE Esidimeni tragedy touched the very heartstrings of all South Africans. It reflected how bureaucratic incompetence, greed and selfishness trumped care and compassion as hapless patients were abused and mistreated.

The families of those who lost their lives surely would have suffered in ways we may not imagine, and continue to suffer to this day with the loss of their loved ones.

And then there is the DA.

In classical political posturing, the DA, believing in some inordinate magnanimity, decided to list the names of those deceased in this tragedy, without permission from their families, on advertising billboards.

However we may wish to argue this fact, I believe it was an insensitive act that demands censure and condemnation.

This act by the DA was not borne of concern and remembrance, but out of the callous seeking of political capital which depicts the levels the party will stoop to boost its image.

Now that Jacob Zuma has left the building and their feigned ally in the name of the EFF is ready to be Brutus, as elections approach, anything – just about anything – will become campaign material for the DA.

While the DA has become its own worst enemy in recent times, we must be prepared for more hijacking of sensitive issues, the sudden niceties being hurled at the electorate and the emergence of “world-class” politicians.

Let us not be hoodwinked and sabotaged by a party that runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds. We must be very careful about the DA’s political chicanery, which is nothing but hot air in their pursuit of a better return at the polls.

SANJAY SINGH Queensburgh