Nine patients died at ‘unlicenced’ NGO
Hearing told Siyabadinga had no professional medical staff too
SIYABADINGA, the NGO where nine mentally ill patients died, had no operating licence or professional medical staff, the arbitration hearing into the patients’ deaths heard yesterday. Siyabadinga’s chief executive Dianne Noyile, a community worker, made the shocking revelation during the Life Esidimeni arbitration hearings, and admitted she used another NGO’s licence.
Siyabadinga received 73 patients transferred from Cullinan Care and Rehabilitation Centre (CCRC) to make space for more patients at the Pretoria facility. In addition, the NGO received three other mentally ill patients who were transferred directly from Life Esidimeni, said Noyile.
“It is true there was no licence for Siyabadinga, the licence that was delivered to us was for Life Disciples International in June 2016. We had meetings with Tshwane director of mental health, and we were promised that licencing processes for Siyabadinga were under way,” Noyile said.
Prior to being requested to accommodate mentally ill patients, Siyabadinga operated as a day-care centre for the elderly and disabled adults in Khangala.
She said she ran Siyabadinga for three months before it was shut down at the recommendation of Health Ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba.
Siyabadinga received no money from the state for that period and no service contract
AT THE TIME I THOUGHT I COULD DO IT. NOW I CAN SEE I WAS NOT CAPABLE. IT IS VERY SAD THAT LIVES WERE LOST AND I WAS PART OF IT
was signed with the department.
Noyile said she relied on donations from churches and other organisations.
There was a lot of pressure from the department to accommodate the patients, she told the hearing.
“It was late afternoon, and there was a bus full of patients in our yard… the officials, who included (suspended head of mental health in Gauteng) Dr (Makgabo) Manamela, did not know where to take them.They just said ‘please take these patients, we do not know where to take them’. The three that they left with us did not have IDs, we didn’t know their names, they only had clothes on their backs,” Noyile testified. She said Siyabadinga employed 30 community workers, eight kitchen staff and eight cleaners, all of whom went unpaid. There were no nurses or doctors at the NGO.
Chairman of the arbitration, retired Justice Dikgang Moseneke asked Noyile why she agreed to take patients when she did not have resources to ensure their well-being. Noyile replied: “at the time I did justice”.
“At the time I thought I could do it… but as things are put on the table right now, I can see that I was not capable.