The former Gauteng health MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, has been testifying at the Life Esidimeni hearings.
Relatives of the dead waited a long time for this and it was no surprise that the venue was overflowing long before the start of proceedings on the day she started testifying.
As Mahlangu walked in, families and their supporters broke into song, Senzeni Na? This song is part of our struggle history. It is a painful question: "What have we done?" What have we done to deserve this?I am certain that those who composed it and directed it to their oppressors and gods never imagined that decades later it would be directed at their liberators, their comrades, their leaders. But here we are in a democratic South Africa and marginalised people are asking yet again: "Senzeni na?"
They added another line to the song. Isono sethu kukugula. Our sin is being ill. Pain and anger fill the air.
Mahlangu is impressive. She has held various senior positions in government and has led crucial provincial departments, including local government and finance and economics.
As a talkshow host, I never struggled to get access to her. Unlike her colleagues, she never hid behind her spokespeople and advisers but gave interviews and let the public know her cellphone number.
Which is why her repeated claim that her officials misled her about the deaths of 143 psychiatric patients is not credible. She is always hands-on.
There are documented accounts of experts, families and credible organisations - for example the South African Depression and Anxiety Group and Section 27 - appealing to her directly not to transfer hundreds of mentally ill patients from Life Esidimeni to bogus "NGOs".It was never going to end well. And it didn't.
Now senior officials and Mahlangu are throwing each other under the bus. There is indeed enough space for all of them under that bus.
Mahlangu was dismissive of patients' families and rubbished Sadag and Section 27, describing them as "dishonest".
Now at the arbitration led by Judge Dikgang Moseneke, she says she was a victim of misinformation and she had no reason to doubt her officials. I have seen this side of Mahlangu before. I have heard those words from her before.
In 2007, a woman from Alexandra called my radio programme. She was hysterical and desperate. Another woman, who was clearly in labour, was about to give birth in the street because the Alex clinic had turned her away.
A child was born on a street corner, in broad daylight, a few metres from the clinic.
With the help of caring members of the community, no lives were lost.
The women involved wanted and deserved accountability. Mahlangu, who was then the MEC for Gauteng municipalities, confidently agreed to be interviewed; she and I were quickly in a shouting match. She would not put any blame on clinic staff who were lying about the event. They did all they could, she argued. I asked her why the woman ended up on a street corner. She did not know and did not care to know.
She yelled at me, "Who must I believe if not my staff and health professionals?"
I retorted: "How about you believe the people who vote for you; who rely on you for services? How about you listen to what THEY have to say?"We deadlocked and the interview ended. Listeners described her as arrogant and uncaring.
This is the Mahlangu who has lived in my mind, side-by-side with the accessible, hardworking one.
Life Esidimeni happened on her watch. Again we see a detached and uncaring Mahlangu. She will not take responsibility.
When it suits her, she is in charge. But she conveniently shifts the blame and responsibility to others when in the firing line.
She should bow her head in shame and say sorry. Part of saying sorry is to be honest and not pass the buck...