By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former Gauteng Premier David Makhura has denied claims that he made the decision to cut ties with the Life Esidimeni facility, leading to the death of 144 mental health patients in the province.
Makhura was testifying on the deliberations of the premier’s budget committee (PBC) meetings and subsequent steps taken after it was first announced the Esidimeni patients had died.
This follows the testimony of former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu that Makhura was directly involved in the decision to cancel the Esidimeni contract.
Mahlangu was adamant that the decision to terminate the contract came from the premier’s committee, and the decision to take the patients from Life Esidimeni was made by the department.
She insisted that the decision to terminate the contract was not wrong, but that it was the execution that went wrong.
Asked to detail what it was about the execution that went wrong, she said that patients were taken to NGOs “without adequate capacity and staffing, were not treated well, NGOs were not paid on time and as a result, patient care was compromised”.
Mahlangu stressed that at all material times the then premier Makhura and the then finance MEC Barbara Creecy were fully aware of what was happening in the health department and of the decision to terminate the contract.
Creecy has since dismissed claims that the premier’s budget committee took the decision to terminate the contract between the Department of Health and Life Esidimeni.
She appeared before the Life Esidimeni Inquest in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The inquest is looking into the deaths of more than 140 mentally-ill patients after they were moved from the Life Esidimeni facility to ill-equipped NGOs in 2016.
“The PBC would be in no position to take a decision on a contract, it is not something that the PBC has authority on and that’s very clear,” Makhura said.
“We have always been clear and I believe even my predecessors know that it has always been clear that the PBC doesn’t make decisions on the contracts or procurements because that is regulated by the PMFA. I am not aware at any period that the PBC would have taken any decision on a contract it would be completely unlawful.”
Makhura said he was told there was nothing unusual about the number of patients that died annually prior to 2016.
“The officials made a presentation. What they basically did was tell me over the past five years how many mental health patients have died. I was shocked that in some years we would have 30 and in other years close to 40. They said this is a trend that has been going on for the past few years.
“According to them, the passing of mental health patients in the NGOs was not unusual; it was normal.
“I issued a statement afterwards. In the statement, I dealt with this part of the deaths. I probed them on how they ended up in the NGOs,” said Makhura.
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