The emotional capacity of South Africans for such things as empathy, sympathy and compassion is exhausted these days. We cater only for one primary emotion: anger. And not without good reason. Only, this blind rage we suffer operates like blinkers. There are tragedies afoot here that make corruption and mismanagement appear no more than an afterthought in the grand scheme of things. They are too terrible to properly contemplate, too grotesque in their callous disregard for basic decency to process and too horrific in their details to fully indulge. Of them all, the Life Esidimeni deaths stand out as preeminent. It is difficult, with no more than words at your disposal, to capture the true nature of the violent neglect and brutal indifference at play. But consider this: 143 people, some of the inherently weakest and most vulnerable members of our society died, viciously and cruelly, at the hands of a state department ostensibly dedicated to their care and protection. There are many d...

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