By Natasha Joseph
A one-year-old baby who died on his grandmother's back after allegedly being denied treatment by nurses at three public clinics has been laid to rest after an emotionally-charged funeral at the family's Nyanga home.
Unabantu Mali's mother, Nonceba Mali, and grandmother, Ntombizodwa Mali, sat quietly beside each other in the dusty front yard of their tiny Nyanga home on Wednesday surrounded by about 50 mourners.
A wooden cross bearing the words "Baby Unabantu Mali RIP" was balanced atop Unabantu's small white coffin.
As a priest lead the mourners in prayer, Nonceba Mali began to weep, bowing her head and clutching a handkerchief to her face.
During a brief speech, Ntombizodwa Mali said she had taken her grandson to clinics in Nyanga, Gugulethu and KTC last week because he had been vomiting and had diarrhoea. She was turned away from all three clinics. On returning home, she discovered that Unabantu, who had been strapped to her back, was dead.
Caroline Makasi, an ANC MP from Nyanga and a member of the ANC Women's League's national executive, said she condemned what had happened to the baby.
"This must be the last time; we're praying it never happens again," Makasi said.
She urged people to report incidents of this nature.
"You must take off your gloves and help people."
Western Cape Health MEC Marius Fransman attended the funeral. His spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, told the mourners that Unabantu's death "should not have happened".
"We failed this family. We failed this child," Ntabazalila said.
Late last week, Fransman announced that he had appointed an independent investigation team to examine what happened and whether clinic staff were negligent.
The team comprises advocate Denzil Potgieter, Marian Jacobs, dean of the faculty of health sciences at the University of Cape Town, and Julian Thops, an adviser to the health department.
At Wednesday's funeral, Ntabazalila said the team would formally begin its investigation today by interviewing Nonceba Mali.
One of the objectives is to discover whether individual clinic staff can be singled out as having turned Unabantu away.
Ntabazalila appealed to the community to take note of nurses' name tags or their physical appearance "so you can point out who is dragging the department's name through the mud".