By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former health MEC Qedani Mahlangu says she was under the impression that the NGOs that accommodated patients moved from Life Esidimeni provided good quality services.
Mahlangu appeared before the Life Esidimeni inquest in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday, where she was cross-examined by Section27’s Advocate Hassim Adila.
The inquest is looking into the 144 deaths that occurred when 2,000 mental healthcare patients were transferred from Life Esidimeni facilities to ill-equipped and unprepared NGO facilities in 2016.
She told the inquiry last week that the decision to terminate the Life Esidimeni contract was taken jointly with the provincial leadership.
Advocate Adila questioned Mahlangu about some of the emails Mahlangu received before and after the termination of the contract, which she admitted not to have personally read.
Adila questioned Mahlangu if she had read an email from Professor Lesley Robertson, dated 23 June 2015, and addressed to her and copied to other officials.
“We are worried that the reduction of beds [20% reduction] at Life Esidimeni will have unintended costly negative consequences, “reads part of the letter.
No I don’t recall it,” said Mahlangu.
“As you can see in the previous correspondence, the letter would have been addressed to me but via DrMakgabo Manamela, so I’m not sure which one of these were sent to me directly and my office dealt with and which ones were sent to Dr Manamela requesting a meeting.
“If you look at the email addressed to the MEC of health and the people copied – and this is consistent with what I was saying at the arbitration – the first person is the director for mental health and substance abuse at the National Department of Health – Sifiso Phakathi, Barney Selebano, Dr Manamela, these are people with authority and skills.
“I do not remember reading the letter. Correspondence coming to my office via email or any form, would be directed by my PA to the relevant people in the department so that they can come back to me with information of how we respond to those cases.”
“Personally, I didn’t reply because my PA would have sent the letter when it arrived to the HOD, who was also copied in the letter himself.
“My PA will handle it in the following regard; it’s not a secret. I am not in medical profession, I’ve never professed to be one. My skills and expertise are in a different form – I am a political head. When I get a question about an issue that is outside of my expertise, I had to rely on people who were knowledgeable, trained and implementers of the programme.
The inquest continues.
Watch Live the proceedings in the video below:
Video Courtesy of JRSA.