Lobbyists want Gauteng Health MEC to face charges
Pressure is mounting on Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu as lobby groups call for her to resign over the deaths of 37 psychiatric patients.
|||Johannesburg - Pressure is mounting on Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu as lobby groups call for her to resign over the deaths of 37 psychiatric patients escalated this week.
Mahlangu is now facing fresh accusations of under-reporting the number of deaths of patients who were moved from Life Esidimeni in Randfontein to community non-governmental organisations.
The embattled MEC is under fire for announcing in September that 36 of the patients had died.
The deaths came after the Life Esidimeni contract was terminated because the department was spending close to R10 000 a patient and could no longer afford it.
In early October another death was confirmed, bringing the death toll to 37.
Now the lobby groups - Section 27, South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag), Young Nurses Indaba (YNI), SA Health Workers’ Congress and Treatment Action Campaign and families claim the death toll could be as high as 60. The department had only recorded 37 deaths.
The lobby groups are calling for Mahlangu to step down and face criminal charges.
Speaking during a vigil outside the Gauteng Department of Health, YNI president Lerato Gova did not mince her words, calling for Mahlangu to resign or be fired because she had contravened the Mental Health Care Act and the constitutional right to life for the mentally ill patients.
“She (Mahlangu) must be criminally charged for planned killings of innocent lives without showing any mercy and subsequently failing to redress her actions by preventing more deaths by reinstating the Esidimeni contract until sound and safe processes were put in place for these mental health care users,” Gova said.
Gauteng Health spokesman Steve Mabona said the department provided details to the Health Ombudsman investigating the matter on the deaths since patients were moved over a period of five years.
He said the department would continue to co-operate with the investigation.
Section 27’s Mark Heywood said the department had sacrificed the lives of mentally ill patients for money because they were “the weakest among us”.
“These patients died as the result of the neglect of people who were meant to look after them,” he said. “Nobody should say these frail family members died of natural causes; they died because of the failure of this MEC, the failure of this head of the Health Department and a lack of concern.”
Heywood said Mahlangu had also failed to apologise and accept responsibility for the deaths.
“This MEC is not fit for office. This MEC should resign or else be fired by Premier David Makhura. The truth must come out,” he said.
Sadag operations director Cassey Chambers said the department must be held accountable for the tragedies as well as the ongoing care and treatment of the remaining patients.
“Someone needs to be held accountable for these deaths,” Chambers said.
She claimed there may be double the number of deaths now than reported which she described as terrible.
“These patients who have died are not just numbers; they are our brothers, sisters, mothers and grandfathers,” he added.
Mangaliso Hlapho, 87, the father of one of the 2 000 psychiatric patients who were moved, told of the appalling conditions in which he found his son Phendulo Hlapho, 31, who was transferred to Hammanskraal without his knowledge. His son is now he in an intensive care unit.
“When I arrived at the NGO called Jubilee care in Hammanskraal, my son was living in a crowded house with 40 other mentally ill patients,” he said. “There is no space for them to sleep or to play outside. The staff there have no uniforms, the food is horrible and there’s no medication.”
Hlapho said his son was now very ill and remained in intensive care unit but he had no money to go and see him regularly.
“I would have preferred that he could be transferred closer to us,” Hlapho said.
Meanwhile, Section 27 spokesperson Nomatter Ndebele told Sunday Independent that they’re considering instituting a civil law suit against the Gauteng Health Department after consultation with the families and once the investigation is finalised.
“We are taking instructions from a number of families and we are committed to taking whatever legal course is necessary to ensure that justice is served,” Ndebele said.
Ndebele said that the MEC and the department must be held to account for ignoring advice from experts and families before moving the patients.
The lobby groups delivered a memorandum of demands to the head of the Department of Health, Dr Barney Selebano, on Thursday.
He said the department could never justify death and that he was also hurt as a person. He promised the families a meeting with Mahlangu.
All 37 deaths of psychiatric patients are now under investigation by Health Ombudsman, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, on the instruction of Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
Sunday Independent