DA calls on Zuma to probe Esidimeni deaths
DA LEADER Mmusi Maimane has called on President Jacob Zuma to establish a judicial commission of inquiry into the Esidimeni deaths of mentally ill patients.
He has already written to Zuma asking him to establish the commission as he did following the Marikana massacre in 2012.
The death toll, initially set at 94, has been revised to over 100 and could continue to rise as more information is gathered.
He said the inquiry should look into “exactly what transpired, how it was allowed to transpire, what national government’s role was and ought to have been and to identify shortcomings in the current system” to avoid a similar “catastrophe in the future”.
This happens as the Gauteng government and Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi are working with the families of the deceased and tomorrow will hold a healing ceremony at Freedom Park in Pretoria.
DA spokesman on health Wilmot James said while the health ombudsman’s report was good and comprehensive, there were several questions that it did not have the mandate to investigate.
One such question is why former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu had made the decision to move the patients from the Life Healthcare Esidimeni facility to 27 NGOs in the province – apparently in a bid to save money, when the budget for mental healthcare had indeed been significantly underspent.
He said the role of Motsoaledi and the “chronic collapse of communication” in his office also needed to be probed. Maimane said that while mental healthcare was a provincial competency, it was the national department which had made the decision to place patients at Esidimeni.
“Many questions remain unanswered and in the name of justice for the deceased and their loved ones, we implore the president to establish a judicial inquiry without delay. If Marikana warranted a judicial commission of inquiry – which it rightly did – then Esidimeni does too.”
James said the ombudsman’s report suggested that the matter be handed over to the police and the Hawks which would mean that inquests into each death, conducted by a magistrate, would need to occur.
This, he said, would mean that bodies may need to be exhumed as it was not clear if postmortems had been performed in all of the cases.