It’s quite ghoulish the manner in which journalists have been tricking their way into the Milpark Hospital, cramming bridges over Barry Hertzog Avenue and hustling around the hospital premises in the hope of getting… getting what?
It’s quite ghoulish the manner in which journalists have been tricking their way into the Milpark Hospital, cramming bridges over Barry Hertzog Avenue and hustling around the hospital premises in the hope of getting… getting what?
The vultures are on full alert with their sharp eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of… what? What do they want? What do they expect? Every news organisation on planet Earth, but especially any with some kind of presence in Gauteng province, is monitoring developments at this somewhat ordinary hospital in Johannesburg.
Reporters try to be clever and casually chat with members of his family on the ground floor. Maybe they’ll let something slip? Can they read something into his grandson’s body language? Did he look nervous? Were there dried tears on her face when she went to buy a snack at the coffee shop?
Investigative reporters use their contacts in the inner circle; others badger the nurses for any bit of information that might produce a titbit of information that no one else has. “He is in no danger and is in good spirits,” said the Foundation.
The ANC called for calm and President Zuma said, "We urge the media to afford him the dignity and respect that he is entitled to as the country's founding democratic president, as a national hero and also as a citizen of the republic.” They’re telling the media to back off, there’s nothing to get worried about – but nobody believes them.
They lied a week before he got married – they denied the rumours – and then it happened. Now they tell us it is nothing more than a routine test and they can’t understand why there are so many photographers sneaking through the hospital corridors. If it is simply a routine test, why has his whole family come to visit him?
When there were routine tests previously, ministers did not come to the hospital and Winnie did not leave the building in tears. We beg the authorities to be open and honest, not only with the media, but with the whole country. We cannot even conceive how terrible the inevitable dark day will be, when all the citizens of this country will be thrown into deep despair – but lying about the day when Madiba must eventually leave us will not assuage the pain one bit. It will only make it that much harder to bear.
