Johannesburg - There’s something the families of the 37 deceased Life Esidimeni psychiatric patients want more than excuses.
They want Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu to be sacked, or fall on her own sword, at least.
As new claims emerge that there were 60 deaths of the patients moved from the Esidimeni facilities to over 122 NGOs earlier this year - rather than the 37 deaths the Gauteng Department of Health previously admitted to - one message by the relatives was clear and resounding at their protest action on Thursday: “Qedani must go.” Neither the civil-society organisations present at the protest nor the relatives minced their words about the tragedy, with SECTION27’s Mark Heywood charging that the department had the deaths of the patients on their hands.
“They (the patients) didn’t die of natural causes, they died because of the failure of the MEC and the HoD (head of department) and because of their lack of concern.
“They think the people with mental disabilities are the weakest among us - that they are the easiest to sacrifice for money. That’s why they died, they were sacrificed,” Heywood said.
When Mahlangu announced that the department was terminating its legacy contract with the mental health group Life Healthcare Esidimeni, which initially housed the more 2 000 patients, she said it was because the department was spending close to R10 000 per patient and could no longer afford it.
And so the patients would be transferred to the department’s NGOs. Relatives and organisations such as the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, SECTION27 and the Treatment Action Campaign all raised concerns that the NGOs were ill-equipped to handle the influx of patients and that the relocation was too rushed to be done properly.
Relatives of patients, such as Andrew Pieterson, whose 68-year-old uncle was moved to an NGO in Krugersdorp, were horrified to find their relatives gaunt and lethargic at the new NGOs from allegedly not being properly fed.
“He had been in the system for 49 years and had been fine. But after a month at that facility, he was like a corpse! We bought him two pieces of chicken, he was so hungry he devoured them.
“I wept tears thinking about my grandmother, who too would have wept for her son,” he said.
Some relatives, like Abraham Nqulungu were thrust into caring for their ill loved ones, yet with no capacity or expertise in caring for the mentally ill.
As a result, two days after his 38-year-old sister Mercy escaped from a Potchefstroom centre and miraculously made it to his home in Turffontein, Joburg, she disappeared, and has been missing since then.
Dr Asram Dasoo from the SA Health Workers' Congress said: “I’m sure when we do the final count, it will even be more than 60 helpless, vulnerable people who died. This time, there’s no sweeping this under the carpet.
“She must resign today. She must be criminally charged for medical negligence.”
The department’s HoD, Dr Barney Selebano, signed the memorandum drawn up by the relatives and said: “We can never justify any death. The department is pained also, I am pained too as a person. It’s not easy for all of us.”
He promised the relatives a meeting with the MEC. The Health Ombud is investigating.
The Star