The Big Read: Black lives don't matter in SA

"I can't breathe." These words haunt me. They were uttered 11 times by Eric Garner on July 17 2014.

A New York City police officer confronted Garner and accused him of selling "loosies" [illegally-acquired loose cigarettes]. Garner told him he had enough of constant harassment about this when he was in fact not selling cigarettes.

Officer Daniel Pantaleo grabbed Garner around the neck and put him in a chokehold. He then pushed Garner's face into the ground while four other policemen forced Garner to remain on the ground.

"I can't breathe," said Garner. "I can't breathe."

He said it again. And again. Eleven times. The police didn't help him, they didn't offer resuscitation. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital about an hour later.

Pantaleo is still a free man. He earned R1.3-million last year as a desk police officer.

I was reminded of Garner last week as health ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba's report into the scandalous deaths of patients transferred by our government from Life Healthcare Esidimeni centres to many unregistered, unaccredited non-governmental organisations was released.

Garner's name is known around the world. There is outrage and shame at the death of this innocent man. The protests and publicity around his case made the Black Lives Matter movement gain prominence around the globe.

We are horrified by this one man's death and what it says about his society and its law-enforcement agencies.

We know nothing about the 94 people who died so horrifically in our places of care in the past year. Did they say: 'I can't breathe'? Did they cry, beg? Who were they?

Silence is what killed the Life Esidimeni patients and silence is what will make their cases disappear.

Our government officials knew that by placing the patients in these unaccredited institutions they were putting their lives at risk. No one said a word.

When they arrived in these places many of the "carers" knew that they did not have the skills or the resources to look after them. Yet they kept quiet.

Then came the dying time.

The patients had no proper medication, no water and no food. They must have cried out. They must have begged for help. They must have been agitated, being psychiatric patients. Their carers did not say a word. The neighbours did not say a word. These patients cried out into the night. "I am thirsty! I am in pain! I am hungry!"

No one said a word. They starved to death. The carers said not a single truthful word. They stayed silent about their deaths and their reasons for them.

For months an investigation was under way. Some of the patients were still dying. Government officials couldn't even tell Makgoba how many were dead or dying as his investigation continued.

As I write, the number 94 is "provisional" - we still don't know how many exactly have died, he said.

Now the big, massive silence damns us. Our national leadership, the president and his cabinet, have been scandalously quiet.

President Jacob Zuma's spokesman, Bongani Ngqulunga, said: "The president has sent his deepest condolences to all the families of the deceased. He has also welcomed the report of the health ombudsman."

Wow. Anywhere else in the world the deaths of 94 patients - from starvation and dehydration - in places sanctioned by government would lead to a flurry of explanations and sanction by the president. Not here.

In our country the scandal is swept aside, unacknowledged and unspoken.

Zuma's reaction to a spat between his favoured current public protector and the previous public protector was more expressive, when he expressed "outrage".

Really? Where has his outrage been when 94 people died on his watch, at the hands of the government he leads?

The sad truth is that in this black republic black lives don't matter.

I don't think Zuma and his colleagues even observed a moment of silence for the dead patients at their cabinet lekgotla at the past weekend.

The deaths of 94 people don't warrant their thoughts or sympathy. They don't matter.

They won't matter in the future, either, unless they matter to us, the populace.

Our politicians will remain indifferent to black lives unless we start holding them accountable for their neglect and disrespect for black lives.

There should be marches and protests and litigation over what happened to these 94 patients.

There should be action to force politicians into action and accountability. If there is no popular action then there won't be change.

Silence will continue to reign.

We will have failed those patients. And the politicians will move on to the next scandal, secure in the knowledge that we have given them the right to abuse us and not care about our people's lives.