Family dismayed by truth getting buried
Esidimeni tragedy officials accused of protecting themselves
GOVERNMENT officials and NGOs were seemingly protecting themselves to stay out of jail, said Christine Nxumalo, who had been hoping to hear the truth behind the Life Esidimeni tragedy.
Nxumalo, whose sister Virginia Machapela died at the Precious Angels NGO, is one of the family members testifying in the third week of the arbitration hearings chaired by retired Justice Dikgang Moseneke.
“Our understanding when we got into the arbitration was that we would get answers, but none of the officials have offered any, and that makes me angry. Instead, what they did was protect themselves. We’re in the third week now and we’re exactly where we were when this arbitration started,” she said.
“I was hoping that Ethel Ncube (the owner of Precious Angels) would not come here and cry her crocodile tears but offer the truth on what happened to my sister… and why she lied about the date of death… not to come here and cry, feeling sorry for herself. Levy Mosenogi (Gauteng Health Department’s chief director of planning) did not say anything either. He was project leader but said nothing.”
Nxumalo said the arbitration was supposed to start the healing process, but the fact that there were no answers as to what happened to her sister and no pathology report meant the hearing was not helping.
She said the heads of NGOs such as Ncube should “stop telling us what they think we need to hear” but admit that they did not have the expertise, were not able to care for or feed the patients.
Advocate Adila Hassim, who represented more than 50 families of the Esidimeni victims on behalf of rights organisation Section 27, asked her if she wanted to hear from any other government official.
“I want to hear from Manamela (Gauteng’s director of mental health, Dr Makgabo) and Qedani Mahlangu (former health MEC). She needs to come to testify and tell us what happened; she signed off all of these as MEC, and the former HOD (Barney Selebano). Even with us protesting they went ahead and moved the patients,” Nxumalo said. Nxumalo said it seemed the officials and NGO heads opted to protect themselves and avoid going to jail.
Moseneke asked her if she could suggest any method for the arbitration to get to the truth regarding the patients’ deaths.
“None of us here knows how they died. I suppose the only way would be to offer them amnesty. I think that is the only way to get them to say something… Judge, I think its a natural reaction to not tell the truth if doing so would get you into jail, that is their reaction.”
Machapela had been an Alzheimers patient at Life Esidimeni. Nxumalo, who was part of the family committee formed to argue against the deadly transfers, said she received an SMS in June last year, informing her that Machapela was being moved to Cullinan, Pretoria, and that Life Esidimeni was closing down. She was later informed that Machapela was at Precious Angels in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria.
“My sister was happy and joyful at Life Esidimeni… she was gaining weight and even remembered our old jokes,’’ Nxumalo said. Machapela died at Precious Angels.
Nxumalo said she struggled to get her sister’s body and had to open a police case to try retrieve it. The funeral parlour where her body was, refused to release the body and demanded that she use their services to bury Machapela.
At least 141 patients died at various unlicensed NGOs across the province after they were removed from Life Esidimeni,