1year Old Turned Away From Three CT Clinics

1year Old Who Was Turned Away From Three CT Clinics

Sunday 22 March 2009

11am

The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign decided at its provincial meeting yesterday to take up the case of the deceased one year old, Unabantu Mali, who died on her grandmothers back last week after being turned away from three clinics in Nyanga, Gugulethu and KTC. Unabantu's grandmother walked from Nyanga East to Gugulethu to KTC, barefoot, seeking help for Unabantu and being rejected at each clinic. She had no money to get to Red Cross hospital.

The family have welcomed our support and we will be with them every step of the way until criminal prosecutions are carried out.

1. We condemn the department of Home Affairs. They have refused for the past three years to rectify the ID document of Unabantu Mali's grandmother, Ntombizodwa Mali. She is 62 years old and looks her age, yet her ID book says she was born in 1970. This has created endless problems for her and her family.

2. We condemn the DA city and the ANC provincial government. Nobody has stepped forward to offer to pay for baby Unabantu's funeral which takes place in Nyanga East this Tuesday. Yet after she died, you had MEC's and Mayors all taking advantage of the situation to appear on TV seeming sympathetic to the family. The family is utterly destitute - there is no breadwinner and there are no windows or burglar guards on their house - people keep breaking in and stealing what little they have. Why has the MEC Marius Fransman not mobilised some kind of support for the family?

3. We condemn Helen Zille and city manager Achmat Ebrahim for saying that they conducted an "investigation" into Nyanga Clinic and found that baby Unabantu was never there, according to their records. This is utter nonsense. They questioned a couple of nurses who tried to cover up for their murderous behaviour - what nurse will make a note in her records to say a sick and dying baby appeared and was turned away? The fact that the city took a mere three days to do this pathetic investigation shows their disdain for the Black citizens of Cape Town (which is nothing new).

4. The Anti-Eviction Campaign will set up a desk to monitor the situation in clinics in Gugulethu and Nyanga. A community meeting offered great support for this initiative. We want to assure the public and the government that we will be on their case like they have never imagined possible.

5. We also blame the Red Cross childrens hospital for releasing baby Unabantu while she was clearly still sick.

6. Tomorrow, we will go with the family to open criminal cases against the city and the provincial governments.

The funeral will be at the family home in Nyanga East on Tuesday - please call AEC number below for directions.

Every step of the way, the Anti-Eviction Campaign in the province has decided to be with that family.

ENDS

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