Judge berates Manamela

Retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke – chairing the Life Esidimeni arbitration – was visibly annoyed with Dr Makgabo Manamela after she refused to be held responsible for the 143 patients who had died after a botched relocation to unlicensed NGOs.

Moseneke asked the suspended director of mental health service about her role in moving patients from Life Esidimeni to non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Manamela has been distancing herself from the project.

Moseneke asked: “In all the 143 deaths, what was your responsibility?”

Manamela responded: “It was a collective decision.”

Moseneke repeated his question: “My question is what is your responsibility?”

Manamela responded saying: “To ensure that patients are given care and make sure no one dies.”

Moseneke asked her why some patients had died.

Manamela replied saying: “The post-mortem will tell us what was wrong. I was not giving any nursing care to patients.”

Moseneke retorted: “You have been sitting on that chair for three days and you have never even once taken responsibility of what happened. Your colleague told us how wrong things were, but you come here and deny everything ... In your evidence, you make it sound like nothing went wrong.”

Earlier, Molefi Mosenogi, the director of planning, policy and research at the Gauteng health department – who worked closely with Manamela during the project – testified before the dispute and resolution committee admitting that the tragedy could have been avoided.

“As a department, I must say we made mistakes. It should not have happened as it happened.”

Yesterday, Manamela defended herself and said Mosenogi had shared his opinion and she was not obligated to agree with him.

Moseneke presented Manamela with more evidence on how wrong things were done during the moving of patients, including transporting them in bakkies. Manamela said her colleagues were the ones who took misinformed decisions. – Citizen reporter