TAC LEADER ASSAULTED AND LEFT FOR DEAD IN KWAZULU-NATAL

Sthembiso Memela, Provincial Treasurer of the Treatment Action Campaign was severely assaulted and left for dead on Thursday night. According to reports Memela was on his way home from a branch induction meeting on the TAC's soon-to-be-released health manifesto in Elandskop and was a few metres from his grandmother's house in KwaDambuza when he was assaulted at 8pm with a yet to identified heavy object.

The group of attackers pummeled him on his neck, head and the rest of his body, dragging him to the middle of the road, clearly in the hope that a car would run him over.

Fortunately passer-byes noticed his lifeless body and called for emergency medical help. He is currently recovering in a hospital with doctors keeping a close eye on internal bleeding, especially to his brain.

None of his valuables, including a mobile phone and cash, was taken.

The attack on Memela comes after a number of death threats against TAC members and leaders in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State.

We thank members of KZN MEC Dr Sibongesini Dhlomo's office for assisting us in accessing appropriate and safe care for Memela's who is under guard with visitors carefully screened, however we have on several occasions voiced our concern that such an attack is a real threat.

We trust that the authorities will now take our concerns seriously and do everything to bring the perpetrators to book. We wish to remind South Africans that the TAC is not a political party, but a civil society movement that works toward the improvement of health services for all.

Statement issued by Anele Yawa and Mzamo Zondi, Treatment Action Campaign, March 3 2014

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