Life Esidimeni: ‘Resigning no bar to prosecution’
PARLIAMENT’S committee on social services has welcomed beleaguered Barney Tiego Selebano’s resignation as Gauteng health boss.
“Despite the resignation, the committee’s call for accountability against those responsible for the Esidimeni tragedy remains. All necessary disciplinary and legal processes must continue and reach their natural conclusion,” committee chairperson Cathy Dlamini said.
Selebano tendered his resignation on Monday in the midst of a string of disciplinary charges against him as the provincial head of the health department.
He testified at the Life Esidimeni hearing into the botched removal of psychiatric patients to unlicensed NGOs, where 143 of them died. His initial attempts to evade giving testimony failed after he had approached the high court to block his subpoena.
Selebano tearfully apologised to families as he concluded his testimony before the arbitration hearing in December. He was one of the officials implicated in health ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba’s report on the Life Esidimeni disaster.
Makgoba found that Selebano committed “gross misconduct and incompetence” as one of the officials in charge of the transfer of mental patients. He further recommended that Selebano’s conduct be reported to the Health Professions Council of SA.
Former health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, who resigned in the wake of the scandal and was widely blamed for the tragedy, is set to testify on Monday. – African News Agency/ANA