OBITUARY: Farewell Estelle Ellis, who chased broken lifts, broken hospitals and broken promises
The Daily Maverick journalist who spent years exposing failures in Eastern Cape hospitals, courts and municipalities, and who once got trapped in a hospital lift with a corpse rather than take an official’s word for it, has died suddenly after a suspected brain aneurysm.
Estelle Ellis, a tenacious investigative journalist from the Daily Maverick, passed away suddenly on August 5, 2026, at the age of 51. She had been battling cancer and was convalescing with her parents in Jeffreys Bay when she suffered a brain aneurysm. She was last seen working on a story for the publication just four days prior.
Ells had built a career exposing failures in Eastern Cape hospitals, courts, and municipalities, including the tragic case of a mother allegedly using rat poison to kill herself and three of her children due to extreme poverty and despair.
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