Pretoria - Senior officials from the Gauteng Department of Health implicated in transferring mental health-care patients from Life Esidimeni facilities into unprepared, unlicensed NGOs in 2016 are scheduled to testify at the inquest from today.
Dr Makgabo Manamela, who was head of the Mental Health Directorate at the department at the time, is due to give her evidence before Gauteng High Court, Pretoria Judge Mmonoa Teffo today. She had applied for a postponement of her evidence until September 12, but yesterday the judge refused the postponement.
Dr Barney Selebano, who was head of the department at the time of the transfer of the patients, and former health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, are expected to give evidence in October and November.
The last three witnesses to testify were the most senior government actors involved in the Life Esidimeni tragedy, in which 141 patients died in 2016 and 2017.
About 2 000 mental health-care patients were hurriedly moved from Life Esidimeni facilities into NGOs in 2016 after the department terminated its contract with Life Esidimeni.
The department rushed the transfer of the patients and did not adequately prepare receiving NGOs, resulting in the deaths of at least 141 mental healthcare patients.
Dr Basuku Morgan Makhatshwa, the then managing director of Life Esidimeni, earlier testified that department officials were warned that their “marathon project” to transfer 2 600 mentally ill patients from Life Esidimeni could have tragic consequences.
Makhatshwa had testified that the department held a trial run in 2007 when it moved children who were cared for by Life Esidimeni to an NGO.
At the time, 15 children were transferred, and two died of neglect – they were severely dehydrated and malnourished. The remaining 13 were returned to Life Esidimeni. “They were in a bad shape, and we never wanted this to happen again,” he said.
After the Life Esidimeni tragedy in 2016, Makhatshwa resigned because “it was frustrating to work with a government which refused to listen to advice”.
The department first planned to move these patients over several years, from 2013 to 2020, by reducing 200 beds a year. But the plan was crammed into seven months, with patients being moved to NGOs which were not ready – or equipped – to receive them.
Makhatshwa said the reason given by the department for terminating Life Esidimeni’s contract and transferring the patients to NGOs and was to save costs.
Makhatshwa said Life Esidimeni’s costs were, at the time, already as low as possible.
Some months they did not receive payment from the department but agreed to continue looking after the patients. He also offered to check on some of the facilities to which the patients were due to be moved, but the department did not respond to this.
Makhatswa said he had also wanted to assist the NGOs in learning how to look after the patients. He said that in a bid to save costs, the department was willing to “dump” these patients back into society.
When scores of patients were transferred to NGOs daily, Life Esidimeni made sure that each of them was handed over with their medication, personal belongings and a summary discharge file, the court was told.
But Cassie Chambers, of the SA Depression and Anxiety Group, testified yesterday that some of the patients were transferred without these items.
The story of the late Virginia Machpelah, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and lived at Life Esidimeni Randfontein Care Centre for two years, is one of the many tragic tales.
Her sister, Christine Nxumalo, said two weeks after she had seen Machpelah, she received an SMS telling her she had been moved, but she had no idea where to look for her.
Nxumalo spent two weeks trying to find her sister.
She discovered that Machpelah had been moved to the NGO Precious Angels in Pretoria and she planned to visit as soon as possible.
But then she received the call that her sister was dead.
She struggled to find the body, which was eventually located in a mortuary in Atteridgeville.
Pretoria News