Johannesburg - The Health Ombudsman has delivered a damning verdict on Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and her department in the probe of the ill-fated transfer of more than 2 000 patients from Life Esidimeni to several non-governmental organisations in the province last year.
The report was ordered by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and undertaken by Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba.
Makgoba puts the death toll of the psychiatric patients at more than the reported 39, with as many as 80 having died, according to sources close to the investigation. However, it is not known whether some of these deaths were found to have occurred prior to the patients being relocated.
Last year, Mahlangu announced the deaths of 36 psychiatric patients in the provincial legislature. The latest figure of more than 80 deaths has been interpreted to suggest there could have been a major cover up of some of the deaths.
According to highly placed sources, the probe heard from witnesses how the department was advised against the transferring of the patients from Life Esidimeni in Randfontein on the West Rand. It is believed that Makgoba in his findings has called for Mahlangu and two senior department officials to take responsibility for the scandal.
Pressure has been mounting on Mahlangu to step down since she announced the initial deaths of 36 patients. That sparked Motsoaledi’s announcement that he had commissioned well-known academic Makgoba to conduct an investigation into the deaths.
The report was supposed to have been released on Wednesday but Mahlangu appeared to put the brakes on it when she asked for more time to respond to Makgoba’s findings, leaving families of the deceased seething with anger.
Insiders said Mahlangu was given “enough time” to respond to the findings and that she instead wrote a letter to Makgoba requesting more time.
Asked if he too was left frustrated by Mahlangu’s last-minute request, Makgoba said he was just following procedure allowed in law and this was not unusual.
“The procedure allows for an extension of that kind of process. So if somebody asks for an extension and it’s allowed you obviously have to change the date of the announcement,” he said.
He said his office had set the date of the release of the report because he was assured there would be a response on a particular day by Mahlangu.
Makgoba did not want to be drawn on some of the information that The Sunday Independent put to him, saying he would release his own information during a media briefing.
“There are many sides to this story as you may gather, so any side that tries to score points just reduces the level of its integrity and I don’t think I want to get into that,” he said.
“I started this job six months ago, this is really my first report and I want to treat it with respect it deserves.”
After his appointment to lead the probe, Makgoba told this newspaper last year: “I do have a very serious view. The death of a person is a very complex issue. People don’t die easily. There are no easy deaths. But the least people who die are mental patients,” he said at the time.
“When someone says there’s been one death, it is alarming. Thirty-six deaths are a catastrophe. What happened? Did they put them in a gas chamber? “The death of mentally ill patients is an exception in medicine. When you analyse the statistics, that’s what you find.”
Jack Bloom, DA health spokesperson, was quick to say Mahlangu would not survive the investigation. “I expect that the findings of the report are devastating and that Mahlangu and some senior officials could be held criminally liable. It is important that there is accountability in this matter for the deaths that could have been prevented.”
Bloom, who was the first to pose a question to Mahlangu in the Gauteng legislature ,said the only option was for the MEC step-down.
“It will be up to the premier (David Makhura) to reshuffle his executive. The only question now is who is going to replace her.
“We are also not sure whether she would just be removed as MEC but kept in the legislature or given another position. Our view is that she should be removed even from the legislature for failing to take responsibility for the deaths.”
Mahlangu is one of the longest-surviving MECs in the province and has held various portfolios since 1994.
But an official in the premier’s office cautioned against people targeting individuals. “You see the problem is when people pick an individual. When this matter started, we said we are concerned people died in our care,” said the official.
“We welcome the decision by the Ombudsman to investigate so that it can assist us in taking appropriate action to ensure that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again."