Former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu took the stand at the Life Esidimeni inquest hearing on Tuesday maintaining she was unaware of the events that led to patients’ deaths.
The inquest seeks to determine criminal liability for the deaths of 141 patients in various mental health facilities after patients were moved to unlicensed centres in 2016.
Mahlangu, the political head of the department when the patients died, apologised for the deaths and detailed their impact on her, too.
“I want to say to the families that may be watching these proceedings, those who lost loved ones … I am deeply sorry that you’ve lost your loved ones. And may their souls rest in peace,” Mahlangu said.
Since the tragedy and the arbitration, her life “has not been the same” and she continues “to receive counsel from my psychologist”, she said.
Regarding moving the patients, she said her team were all highly qualified, including PhDs. “At no point did I doubt their experience,” she said. “I relied on their authority on the issue.”
She said that when she was asked by media about the deaths at the time, she “did not have complete information”. She said it was “prudent” to then reach out to the health ombudsman. She encouraged autopsies be done quickly so that authorities could submit the deaths for investigation.
Her testimony continues on Wednesday, when it is expected she will also face cross-examination from the families’ legal teams.
She remained adamant at the inquest she did what she could in her capacity as MEC.
Wanton decision
In 2018, former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke awarded the families millions in damages in the arbitration between government and the deceased patients’ families.
He ruled that officials such as Mahlangu had demonstrated a “wanton, arbitrary and unaccounted decision” in discharging patients to the unlicensed NGOs. He noted this decision was “a very serious breach of the constitutional obligations by the state and its servants”.
Regarding Mahlangu, Moseneke found she was “by all accounts … at the helm of the Marathon Project [that led to the tragedy]. She was the ultimate leader.” Moseneke ruled that she, with two others, “refused to stop the mass transfer of mental healthcare users to [NGOs] not fit for purpose.”
At Moseneke’s hearings, then Gauteng MEC for finance, Barbara Creecy, said that R47m was spent on these NGOs. Later, millions of rand were ordered to be paid back by some of the NGOs due to court action.
Mahlangu on Tuesday began her testimony by detailing her extensive political background. She was MEC for numerous entities in Gauteng, including elections. She was twice MEC for health, once in 2009 and again in 2014, until she resigned in 2017. The transferring of the patients occurred during her second stint as MEC.
When she returned to the health department in 2014, the financial instability of the department was apparent, she said.
“I knew things were not very good,” she told Pretoria judge Mmonoa Teffo. However, she said she worked with authorities and medical professionals. About 62,000 people worked under her, making it “impossible” for her to have direct contact with every employee’s decisions and actions.
In 2014, budgetary concerns led to the decision of the Gauteng premier’s budget committee, which she was part of, to end its contract with Life Esidimeni.
Life Esidimeni was a subsidiary of Life Healthcare, which was a private healthcare provider catering to about 1,500 mental health patients at the time. This led to moving these patients to various NGOs, as part of a “cost-cutting exercise”.
The NGOs turned out to be unlicensed. It was this move, known as Marathon Project, which caused the deaths of patients.
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