By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The inquest into the Life Esidimeni tragedy in which 144 mental health patients died resumed on Thursday at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
The matter commenced with closing arguments of NGO, Section27, arguing for former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, former Director of Mental Health Directorate Dr Makgabo Manamela and the owner of Precious Angels NGO, Ethel Ncube, to be charged with culpable homicide.
They argued that the Gauteng government was warned about the dangers of the relocation to unregistered NGOs, yet the department continued.
Mahlangu said the move was due to budget cuts.
Many of the deaths were as a result of neglect, starvation, and dehydration.
The inquest aims to determine if anyone can be held criminally liable for the deaths in 2016.
Section27’s executive director Sasha Stevens says Mahlangu, the form Manamela and Ncube, should be charged with culpable homicide for their involvement in the tragedy.
“In terms of the Inquests Act, the judge must determine the cause of the deaths of the 144 mental health care users who died after they were moved from Life Esidimeni into unlicenced and unprepared NGOs. The judge must then decide whether, on the face of it, the conduct of any person caused or contributed to any of the deaths”.
Stevens believes the deaths of at least 10 patients were caused by the conduct of the three officials.
“Ms Mahlangu made the initial decision to terminate the Life Esidimeni contract. She then continued to make a series of reckless decisions in relation to the project for months while chairing project team meetings”.
“Dr Manamela was the de facto project leader and was directly involved in the implementation of the termination project. She signed licenses for NGOs that she knew had not been properly assessed and then failed to ensure that they were paid timeously”.
“Ethel Ncube was the owner of Precious Angels, which saw the deaths of 20 mental health care users, the first of whom died less than two weeks after being moved into her care. As the owner of the NGO Precious Angels, Ms Ncube housed mental health care users in the most deplorable conditions,” said Stevens.
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