Life Esidimeni inquest must be followed by sanctions

The inquest finding that former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and the erstwhile director of mental health care in the province Dr Makgabo Manamela should be held criminally liable for the deaths of 10 Life Esidimeni psychiatric patients will come as cold comfort to the families of all those who died or suffered as a result of this devastating episode.

While it apportions criminal culpability to Mahlangu and Manamela, the inquest’s outcome is yet to be considered by the National Prosecuting Authority, which will decide whether to lay charges. But no court ruling can bring back the families’ loved ones.

Esidimeni, which ironically means a place where patients will have their dignity restored, became instead an institution where patients were treated with cruelty and indignity, with more than 140 losing their lives as a result. It has remained a shameful blot on the nation’s health-care system.

As a society founded on the values of human rights and the need to treat everyone, especially the weakest in our society, in a humane way, it should sit uncomfortably with all of us that so many people, among the most vulnerable citizens, could die without anyone suffering the consequences for creating conditions that resulted in one of the biggest tragedies to befall our medical system. In addition to the patients who died, more than 1,400 others were subjected to gross mistreatment when they were moved from Esidimeni to privately run and unsuitable places of care.

The inquest findings will hopefully serve as a warning to all those who are given the power to exercise public authority to act conscientiously and humanely in dealing with the public they are supposed to serve. The results of the inquest will also hopefully indicate that a failure to do so will be followed by sanctions.

If there are no consequences, the whole inquisitory process will have been left incomplete an open wound that will make it difficult for the affected next of kin to find closure.