KARYN MAUGHAN: Suicide probe highlights parliament administration’s lack of accountability
Accusations that politicisation of the institution, even before Lennox Garane's death, had led to it becoming toxic are well documented
On Friday, September 14 2018, Lennox Garane arrived at parliament, where he had been working as a public sector manager for nearly four years, and made his way through the building’s familiar rooms and passages, knowing it was for the last time. No-one who encountered the 57-year-old, whose passion for learning had seen him obtaining two Master’s degrees after starting his education in a mud school in rural Eastern Cape, could have had any idea of what he planned to do that day. We have no insight into the last thoughts of Garane as he locked the door of his office on the second floor, took out the gun he had smuggled through multiple security systems, and shot himself. But we do know one thing: he had decided how he wanted his death to be explained. “This is a protest suicide,” he wrote. Now, months later, Garane’s suicide — and the investigation into what led to it — has become a rallying point for civil society and former parliamentary staff, who believe it highlights how parliam...
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