LISTEN | Mapisa-Nqakula not happy with SAHRC's 'insensitivity'

Former defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said she was not happy with the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) insisting her to appear before its panel on Monday despite her attending to an emergency.

Monday's hearing:

The SAHRC entered its second week of inquiry into the July unrest. This week state entities are appearing before the commission to give their side of the story on what occurred in unrest and looting that affected parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

Mapisa-Nqakula said she had requested that the commission allow her not to appear on Monday but on a later day as she had an emergency at the weekend. She said she was helping a patient who later died in an ambulance.

“We arrived in Nelspruit, the situation was bad, somebody had been discharged from hospital in a very critical situation with a stroke.”

She said the patient died in an ambulance and she had to go back to the family and assist.

She said she contacted the commission to plea not to appear on Monday as had been agreed.

“My request was, 'can you request the commission to please postpone ... somebody has just died in our hands,” she said.

Mapisa-Nqakula said the commission refused to postpone her appearance before the panel but insisted she appears before the panel on Monday.

“The letter I received is impersonal, totally cold and I personally I could not associate it with a human rights commission,” she said.

The hearing continues until December 3.

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