Mental health head grilled
AFTER fighting for half a day not to be placed on the stand, former Gauteng director of mental health Dr Makgabo Manamela faced a tough grilling.
Manamela’s legal representative, advocate Lerato Mashilane, fought hard for his client not to appear before the Life Esidimeni alternative dispute resolution.
Mashilane told the head of arbitration, retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke that Manamela could not appear before him yet, because she still had to appear before an internal disciplinary hearing at work.
Manamela has been placed on suspension with full pay pending the hearing.
Mashilane said Manamela also needed access to her work laptop which was confiscated when she was suspended. She therefore did not have access to documents she needed to defend herself. He also said Manamela wanted to have access to documents the arbitration had and asked for a postponement for four weeks.
Once on the stand, Manamela was bombarded with tough questions on the decisions she made while she was the deputy project manager in charge of moving patients from Life Esidimeni to NGOs. About 141 patients died from hunger, neglect and dehydration once moved to NGOs – some of which were unregistered.
Manamela said Siyabadinga was the only NGO that operated without a licence. “They used Life Disciples’ licence and that was illegal. They weren’t even part of the marathon.”
Siyabadinga received patients from Cullinan Care and Rehabilitation Centre to make space for those coming from Life Esidimeni.
NGOs testified before the arbitration that Manamela and other department officials forced them to take in more patients than they had capacity for. But Manamela said this was untrue. “We asked NGOs that if they have enough capacity then they can take patients. We didn’t force them,” Manamela said.
We didn’t just let them to die. We checked why the patients were dying
She said once the contract was terminated with Life Esidimeni, the institution didn’t hand over all their documents. “We struggled with patient medication. We struggled with patient files and clothes. There were some patients who were moved with medicine (prescription) for seven days,” Manamela said.
“Family who were available knew their people were going to be moved. Life Esidimeni’s role was to inform families when the patients were leaving and the department would inform them once we receive them,” Manamela said.
She said that over 700 patients didn’t have family members.
On the deaths of patients, Manamela said: “I was hurt. We didn’t just let them to die. We checked why the patients were dying.”
She admitted the department didn’t pay NGOs on time. “We wrote a letter to finance asking them to pay. We ensured clothing and food was provided for,” she said.