DA pushes for Gauteng premier to go

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane yesterday called for Gauteng Premier David Makhura to resign, saying the deaths of more than 100 psychiatric patients in the province under his watch showed he wasn’t doing his job.

The DA argued for Makhura’s removal in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature during debate of a motion of no confidence in the premier yesterday.

During a protest at the Gauteng premier’s office yesterday, Maimane said Makhura could not stay in office until 2019.

Maimane said the Gauteng government, led by the ANC, was responsible for the fate of the mental patients, adding that their deaths could have been prevented had Makhura heeded numerous warnings.

He was joined by DA Gauteng provincial leader John Moodey, DA Johannesburg regional chairperson Khume Ramulifho, DA health spokesperson Jack Bloom and Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba.

“This ANC government allowed more than 100 mental health patients to die from starvation, dehydration, diarrhoea, pneumonia and seizures,” Maimane said.

“This ANC government calls these tragic deaths due to abandonment and neglect a ‘mistake’. But this was far more than a mistake. What happened to these people required deliberate decisions – decisions that were made in the face of repeated warnings of the disastrous outcome that would follow.”

Health ombudsman professor Malegapuru Makgoba reported last month that more than 100 psychiatric patients had died from, among other conditions, neglect and starvation after they were transferred to unlicensed nongovernmental organisations for care.

During his State of the Province address last week, Makhura said his executive team had not given the go-ahead for the transfer of the patients.

But Maimane said if Makhura had not known what was happening to psychiatric patients, then that meant he was not doing his job.

He said Makhura was told as far back as November 2015, during the debate on the Health Annual Report, of the grave dangers of moving these patients, but that he “chose not to act”.

“And even after you were told of the first confirmed deaths, you did nothing.

“For 141 days you let Qedani Mahlangu remain in her post as the death toll was rising,” Maimane said.

“Only when the shameful report by the health ombudsman surfaced were you spurred into action.

“But that was too little, too late, Premier Makhura.

“The families of the victims deserve more. The people of South Africa deserve more.” – ANA