Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane had laid a charge of culpable homicide against Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, after a toddler’s breathing machine failed during a blackout.
The little girl, Neyamiah Eaton died en-route to the hospital after a viral infection made it difficult for her to breathe. She had been relying on a backup oxygen cylinder but the inverter powering her breathing machine stopped working after days of outages in her area.
Maimane said there was no concerted effort by the government and it was failing the most vulnerable, reports TimesLIVE.
“There’s a famous line that says, ‘charge the government by how it looks after its most vulnerable’,” he said.
“The most vulnerable are children dying in pit latrines. They are being put in cardboard boxes in the North West and they’re dying because local hospitals are suffering delays. When there is extended load-shedding, incubators fail, children die. So it must be held accountable.”
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