The number of people who died after being moved from the care of Life Esidimeni could be 156‚ rather than the accepted number of 144 deaths.
This emerged on the final day of witness testimony after more than 10 weeks of hearings. The Life Esidimeni hearings aim to find closure for families of the mentally ill patients who died following the transfer of 1‚700 patients to ill-equipped non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
According to Advocate Nikki Stein, representing Section 27‚ there are 12 names not included on the list of dead. Section 27 asked on December 7 that the state verify these patients had, in fact, died after leaving Life Esidimeni homes. This has not been done.
The number of dead matters because Justice Dikgang Moseneke will determine a financial award for the families of victims. Moseneke told the hearing: "We’d have to devise a process that’ll bring us certainty. You are talking about lives and families and additional pain."
The state and families are currently in negotiations about what the financial award will be and what each party will ask for, and offer in compensation, before Moseneke makes the award. Moseneke has given the state until Thursday February 8‚ the day the final arguments in the hearings will take place‚ to finalise the names and numbers of the deceased.
If the state does not provide the final list‚ Moseneke is going to use the list Section 27 has in its possession, which would bring the number of dead to 156.
State Advocate Tebogo Hutamo said if the names of the deceased could be verified‚ the state was not against the inclusion of additional people on the final list, but he could not guarantee the final number would be completed in the time required as the state is relying on the health ombudsman to verify the dead.
Moseneke was annoyed at this as he said the witness testimony hearings have to wrap up on Wednesday.
On Wednesday‚ Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa also testified that the Gauteng Department of Health believed that 55 rather than 62 former Life Esidimeni patients were missing. Of these‚ seven may have been found in NGOs.
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