Former Gauteng health boss still does not get it, says Moseneke

JUSTICE Dikgang Moseneke spent Makgabo Manamela’s fourth day on the stand trying to get her to realise the fatal consequences of her actions‚ eventually telling her she “did not get it”.

The former Gauteng director of mental health, who has a PhD in psychiatric nursing‚ signed licences giving underfunded‚ inexperienced‚ badly equipped non-government organisations permission to look after severely mentally ill patients and as a result 143 people died‚ most of them in those NGOs.

This was after 1 712 patients were moved out of Life Esidimeni homes when the Gauteng Department of Health terminated its contract with Life Esidimeni.

Eventually‚ Moseneke reminded her that her decision to allow NGOs to care for these people had affected human lives.

“I want you to appreciate that you were given power by a law to make certain decisions that would affect the lives of mental healthcare patients,” he said.

“You exercised that power‚ and the result is that the patients died. Can you see that connection?

“It is not how clever[ly] you explain something.

“Just understand, you made a decision.

“You granted licences to people who were incompetent to do their job‚ and some people lost their lives.”

Manamela said: “My response is that even though there is a procedural error [around the date on which she signed the licenses], the NGO was assessed.”

She said she had given NGOs licences based on her team’s favourable assessment of them after an inspection.

Moseneke‚ who had often made his point about human lives in her four days on the stand‚ responded: “You do not get it.”

Manamela nevertheless disputed this‚ saying: “I get it.”

She countered that there might have been other reasons for some of the deaths.

“It might be that the NGOs were not as qualified‚ as [the report given to me by my team] was saying. There are other variables that might have led to the deaths of other users [patients].” Evidence has been led showing that NGOs did not get funding from the department for four months‚ had no food‚ no blankets‚ no access to doctors‚ no medical records of patients‚ and no financial means to hire skilled staff.

Patients discovered by families‚ dead or alive‚ were often emaciated and it is believed some starved to death‚ died as a result of dehydration‚ or succumbed to pneumonia in the cold.