SICKENING DETAILS OF THE TRUTH BEHIND THE TRAGEDY
She had Alzheimer’s but was otherwise healthy. Now she’s dead – one of 94 victims of Gauteng’s healthcare disgrace
Heartbroken families pour their hearts out
HER phone is going crazy – she’s had 689 WhatsApp messages and nine calls in the past hour alone. People have been streaming into her home all day, coming to comfort her and share their shock after the lid was blown off a scandal that’s being called SA’s new Marikana.
Christine Nxumalo’s sister Virginia Machpelah was one of the mental health patients who died in a Gauteng health department tragedy – a harrowing saga with incompetence and indifference for people at their most vulnerable at its heart.
The extent of the horror emerged when health ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba released his findings about the case. The report, widely praised by the healthcare sector, revealed a staggering 94 people died – not 39 as originally stated. And the death toll could rise as the probe into the disgrace continues.
Between April and June last year 1 371 mentally ill patients were transferred from Life Esidimeni psychiatric hospitals to various nongovernmental organisations as a cost-cutting measure by the Gauteng health department.
Many of the NGOs were unlicensed or incorrectly licensed – and almost all were ill equipped to care for such patients. Professor Makgoba’s report details how some were collected at Life Esidimeni centres and carted off in bakkies.
In many cases relatives weren’t told where their loved ones had been moved to and some found out months after the fact that they’d died. The centres failed to care for the patients, leaving them severely malnourished and dehydrated. Many suffered from diarrhoea and pneumonia and almost all were filthy and neglected. The centres were described by some witnesses as similar to concentration camps.
Patients were moved to “an unstructured, unpredictable, substandard caring environment”, the report stated. Only one of the 94 patients died as a result of mental illness – the other 93 succumbed as a result of inadequate care.
CHRISTINE and her family were relieved when they found Life Esidimeni. Virginia (50) had early onset Alzheimer’s disease – she’d started showing signs of the condition in her late forties.
When her memory loss started becoming more severe, her family took her to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital where doctors advised the best place for Virginia would be the Life Esidimeni Randfontein Care Centre.
“The facility had various units and divided people according to their conditions,” Christine says. “They kept you informed every step of the way about your family member’s whereabouts.”
But two years after her arrival at the facility Virginia was transferred to an NGO in Cullinan near Pretoria. Her family were notified via SMS of the transfer but it took weeks for Christine to find out the name of the NGO was Anchor.
“I was in panic mode,” she says. Just as she was making arrangements to visit Virginia she received a call saying her sister had died. “It was such a shock,” she recalls. “My sister wasn’t ill. Every time they did tests at Life Esidimeni they’d say, ‘Your sister is as healthy as an ox.’ How could she die?”
Christine later found out Virginia had been taken from Anchor to another facility, Precious Angels in Atteridgeville. She went there but couldn’t get into the facility.
“It’s a red brick house but there’s no number on it, no sign it’s an NGO. You could see beds next to the house but you could see they were no longer in use.”
Christine was told her sister had died of natural causes but she’s still awaiting the results of the postmortem.
Her description is consistent with the health ombudsman’s findings.
“The NGOs where the majority of patients died had neither the basic competence, experience nor leadership nor managerial capacity for the purpose for
which they were intended and were often poorly resourced,” Professor Makgoba said.
LUCAS Mogwerane (70) is a man in mourning. “I miss him,” he tells us from his home in Orlando West, Soweto. His brother Christopher (56) is believed to have been the first patient to have died after leaving Life Esidimeni.
Christopher’s troubles started when he was 21, Lucas says. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and it took his family a long time to find a place for him. Eventually he was admitted to Life Esidimeni Randfontein.
He remained there for many years but was released in 2010 as his condition improved. In 2014 he lived with Lucas and went to Life Esidimeni Waverley Care Centre in Germiston during the day while Lucas was at work.
Lucas recalls his brother was healthy and energetic, always reminding other patients to take their medication. “He was always joking and used to say, ‘I’m not sick; these people are sick.’ They used to call him ngamla (‘the best’).”
Lucas says he’ll never forget the “arrogant” calls he received from the social workers who claimed they were following now-disgraced health MEC Qedani Mahlangu’s orders. They told him they were moving Christopher to an NGO in Atteridgeville.
Lucas visited his brother there three days later. “The manager was honest,” he says. “She said they weren’t prepared for the move and that the MEC had forced them into it.”
He says his brother looked stressed. “He’d rarely cried in his life but he said he was happy to see me and that he was hungry. When I tried to give him food the other patients surrounded us.”
A week after this visit Christopher was dead. “He was found in the bathroom, away from the other patients. His hand was crooked as if he’d had a stroke.”
He can’t get the image of his brother weeping in the new facility out of his head. “I didn’t want to cry as well so I held my tears back. I didn’t know that would be our last goodbye.”
THE fallout from the ombudsman’s report should be severe. Mahlangu resigned hours before the findings were released while Dr Tiego Selebano, head of the department, and Dr Makgabo Manamela, the department’s director, have also been implicated.
“Their fingerprints are peppered throughout the project,” Professor Makgoba said. He found the decision to terminate the contract with Life Esidimeni to be deeply flawed. “The cost rationale couldn’t be justified above the rights of the mentally ill patients to dignity.”
Mahlangu’s decision to fall on her sword has been met with anger. “It was a hollow victory,” Christine says. “She was arrogant, she was rude and she didn’t even care. As the deaths were coming through we were reporting them to the department but nothing was done.”
A Soweto mother agrees – she asked not to be named as her daughter is still at one of the dubious NGOs. “After the bad things the MEC’s done she’s running away? She should go to jail.”
Her daughter was diagnosed with polio as a toddler and left disabled. The elderly mom is unhappy with her child’s new home. “It’s cold, it doesn’t smell nice and there’s no proper clothing for the patients,” she tells us. “The girls walk around with no panties on – just in trousers.”
Civic organisations were horrified to learn the extent of the damage. “I’m glad the MEC has taken political responsibility by resigning but I don’t think it’s enough,” says Sasha Stevenson of health and education watchdog Section27.
The report recommended disciplinary proceedings be taken against Drs Selebano and Manamela, and corrective action be taken against other members of the Gauteng directorate of mental health.
These actions must be instituted within 45 days – but for the families who lost their loved ones it’s cold comfort.