The findings of a legal inquest set up to decide whether there is enough evidence to prosecute Gauteng health department officials and workers of nonprofits for criminal charges, will be released today .
The inquest revolves around the unnatural deaths of 141 out of 144 government mental health patients who died between June 2016 and October 2017 when they were transferred from private psychiatric hospitals in Gauteng, Life Esidimeni, to community organisations.
The state patients were transferred to save money and as part of a government policy to move mental health patients out of hospitals to the community.
Heres a timeline of how events unfolded.
The findings of a legal inquest set up to decide whether there is enough evidence to prosecute Gauteng health department officials and workers of nonprofits for charges such as culpable homicide, assault with the intention to do grievous bodily harm and contravening the Mental Health Care Act , will be released today .
The inquest revolves around the unnatural deaths of 141 out of 144 government mental health patients who died between June 2016 and October 2017 when they were transferred from private psychiatric hospitals in Gauteng, Life Esidimeni, which the provincial health department paid to take care of 1 812 mental health patients , to community organisations to save money, and as part of the national health departments policy to deinstitutionalise mental healthcare .
At the centre of the tragedy are eight main roleplayers three from the Gauteng health department and the heads of five non-governmental organisations, mostly unlicensed, to which patients were transferred.
In the case of the Gauteng health department, Qedani Mahlangu, the health MEC at the time, the then head of the provincial health department, Barney Selebano, and the director of mental health, Makgoba Manamela, will today find out if the inquest recommends that the National Prosecuting Authority opens criminal cases against them. Two of the five NGOs, Precious Angels and Anchor, have specifically been accused of creating death traps for patients.
Bhekisisa will be covering the results of the inquest live from our handle on X (@bhekisisa_MG)
