Esidimeni MEC ‘booked’ to testify in the new year

FORMER Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu will testify at the Life Esidimeni arbitration hearing in January only because of her ongoing studies in the UK, her attorney Angelo Christophorou has said.

Yesterday, Christophorou, from Biccari Bollo Mariano ( BBM) law fir m, said: “Mahlangu will testify from January 22 up to 26. We give an undertaking on our client’s behalf that she will attend. She is willing to come and attend.

“We have also agreed that the subpoena be i s s ued f or those particular dates and be served at her address in Bedfordview.”

It was initially announced by State attorney Tebogo Hutamo that once a subpoena had been served “everything would be done” to ensure that Mahlangu appears this month, to answer for herself at the hearings looking into the deaths of more than 140 patients who were transferred from private health provider Life Esidimeni to unlicensed NGOs.

Hutamo had cited difficulties in locating Mahlangu so that the subpoena could be served on her.

She had registered to further her studies at a university in the UK, Hutamo told the arbitration.

The beleaguered for mer MEC has opted to appoint BBM attorneys to represent her. Christophorou said his client would not be able to testify this year because she was busy with her studies at the Global Banking School, whose awarding institution is the University of Bedfordshire.

“Our client is registered for a Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Bedfordshire, London. She has already completed a private equity module and is busy with strategy and a global competitive environment model which she will finish this month.”

She is set to start another module which she will complete on January 15, he said.

Re g arding Mahlangu’s reported suspension by the university in light of the Life Esidimeni tragedy that happened under her watch, Christophorou said an appeal was under way.

“We are of the view that that suspension was both wrong and unlawful and we are taking steps to have that revoked.

“That is why, notwithstanding the suspension, she finishes her module on January 15 and will be appearing here on the dates submitted to the arbitration.”

The university said it suspended Mahlangu owing to the “serious allegations” she faced back home.

Mahlangu is widely blamed for the botched relocation of psychiatric patients from Life Esidimeni that resulted in 143 of them dying amid horrific neglect at unlicensed NGOs across the province. She resigned as the tragedy unfolded earlier this year.

At the time, Health Ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba’s report found that as many as 94 psychiatric patients who were transferred from Life Esidimeni to unlicensed NGOs had died.

However, the death toll rose over time as more information was discovered by Makgoba, bringing the number of deaths to 118 and then later to 141. Giving an update at the arbitration yesterday, Makgoba said the death toll was now at 143. – ANA