Police urged to speed up Esidimeni investigation
THE police need to speed up the investigation into the 144 recorded Esidimeni deaths‚ including information from postmortems that will provide indisputable evidence to obtain convictions of those responsible‚ DA health spokesman for Gauteng Jack Bloom said.
He said this was his conclusion following his visit last week with MPL Dr Neil Campbell to the Mosego Home‚ as they were confronted with contradictory information about the cause of the seven deaths there of Esidimeni patients.
Mosego’s manager‚ Maletsatsi Mokgojoa‚ had strenuously denied that the patients had died of neglect and lack of food‚ as claimed by relatives, Bloom said.
“This NGO took 63 patients from Life Esidimeni in mid-2016‚ and an inspection by the Health Ombudsman’s Office found they were housed in unsuitable conditions which could have caused the deaths of seven.
“The Takalani Home in Soweto was registered and managed under Mosego’s licence‚ which was also issued illegally‚” Bloom said.
According to evidence at the Esidimeni arbitration hearings‚ there were many deaths at Takalani as well as cases of typhoid and an alleged rape‚ he said.
“This highlights the need for police to get proper evidence in bringing charges against those in charge at all the NGOs where patients died‚” Bloom said. – TimesLIVE