Former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu informed the inquest kept in the Pretoria high court that she did not think she had actually contravened the constitution or broke the rights of Life Esidimeni victims. Throughout the week she was questioned by various legal representatives to help the court in figuring out if anybody is responsible for the deaths of 144 psychological health care clients in 2016. “I understand that the constitution is binding on everybody as public authorities. I was not confessing that I breached the arrangements of the constitution.” Part of her testament on Thursday highlighted a supposed monetary concern in the department which led to financial restrictions: the corruption accusations versus the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) for corruption. The SIU was advised by President Cyril Ramaphosa to examine several claims of maladministration, inappropriate or illegal conduct and deliberate or irresponsible loss of public cash. The accusations cover the duration from July 1 2015 to today. The tenders consist of restoration agreements for the virology lab at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, the library at the National Institute of Occupational Health, the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis, and toilets at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. “That was among the tough concerns we were handling at the time, there was a Treasury examination relating to expenses credited to the nationwide lab, and as an outcome, they owed Treasury cash. It was among the expense chauffeurs. This was among the products triggering problems,” Mahlangu stated. Throughout the week, Adv Adila Hassim, representing the general public interest law centre Section 27 and the households of the psychological health care users, handled the letter from the Society of Psychiatrists on their main issue of the decrease of beds at Life Esidimeni. She looked for Mahlangu’s proof on whether she believed the deinstitutionalisation of psychological health clients was carried out at a fast speed, and of information of particular conferences where the choice to end the agreement happened. She stated the choice to close Life Esidimeni was to suppress costs and conserve more than R300m. “I want to duplicate that we were not going to toss any clients away. We were conserving the R300m that we were investing at Life. “If we had R300m to spend for these clients, excellent, let’s go on with the agreement. We didn’t have the cash,” she stated. TimesLIVE
‘I didn’t breach the constitution, Qedani Mahlangu on Life Esidimeni deaths
