Families of Life Esidimeni victims want memorial hospital
FAMILIES of Life Esidimeni victims want a lasting memory in a form of a hospital for their loved ones but not a memorial stone which would cost millions of rand.
The families want the Gauteng and the national government to partner to build a hospital.
The families’ wishes were articulated by one of the family members, Christine Nxumalo, during a press briefing yesterday about the families and Section27’s preparation for a formal inquest hearing into the death of 144 patients while under the care of bogus health-care centres.
The tragedy unfolded in June 2015 when the Gauteng Health Department ended a contract with Life Esidimeni Healthcare Centre which looked after more than 2000 mental health patients due to alleged budgetary constraints.
The dispute arbitration by retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke found that those centres did not have the requisite medical certificate or permits to look after the patients. Justice Moseneke ordered the Gauteng government to compensate victims’ families and survivors of the ordeal.
The findings came after he heard gruelling evidence of how these families, on their own, had to find the bodies of their loved ones in mortuaries and hospitals in various parts of Pretoria and surrounding areas.
Two of the 144 patients were buried as paupers as they still remain unknown five years later.
Nxumalo yesterday told the media that the families have compiled a petition to lobby the government to build a memorial hospital for the patients similar to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Parktown, Joburg.
Nxumalo was speaking ahead of the inquest into the patients’ deaths scheduled for Monday in Pretoria.
She said the families were seeking closure and hoped those responsible for the deaths would be prosecuted if the inquest made such a finding.