Psychiatric boss blamed for debacle

THE Gauteng Health Department deputy director who was in charge of vetting NGOs in the Life Esidimeni tragedy, in which 143 psychiatric patients died, says her boss, the director of mental health, Dr Makgabo Manamela, pressured her into not following the correct auditing procedure when issuing licences.

Hanna Jacobus’s testimony before retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke came in the wake of the resignations of the department’s head, Dr Barney Selebano, and Manamela. Both had testified at the Esidimeni hearings.

Yesterday, Jacobus testified that Manamela had told her procedures could not be followed because of the imminent closure of Life Esidimeni.

Jacobus said that when she asked Manamela questions, she was removed from the core functions of the supposed cost-saving project to transfer the patients to 27 NGOs.

Manamela had spearheaded the initiative and was in charge of issuing licences. According to her, only one NGO was operating without a licence.

However, it was revealed that others were unlicensed. Some of the transferred patients died of starvation and neglect, among other causes. As many as 59 patients are yet to be accounted for.

When asked by Moseneke what she did when she received an order which she knew was wrong, Jacobus said she had felt uncomfortable.

However, she said she had continued with her tasks, even though she knew disregarding procedure was wrong.

Jacobus said that by the time she heard about the deaths, more than 80 had already died.

“To this day I regret these decisions taken.”

She said her former boss had lied during her testimony when she said some of the NGOs had been audited.

Jacobus said none of the facilities had been inspected, as the audit procedure required. – African News Agency/ANA