Section27 seeking culpable homicide charges as Life Esidimeni inquiry resumes
Non-profit organisation Section27 says it will argue for culpable homicide charges to be brought against three senior officials when the Life Esidimeni inquest resumes on Thursday.
In 2016, 141 people at psychiatric facilities in Gauteng died from starvation and neglect when they were moved from the Life Esidimeni facility to unlicenced and unprepared NGOs.
Section27's executive director Sasha Stevens says former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, the former director of the Mental Health Directorate, Dr Makgabo Manamela and the owner of Precious Angels NGO, Ethel Ncube, should be charged with culpable homicide for their involvement in the tragedy.
"In terms of the Inquests Act, the judge must determine the cause of the deaths of the 141 mental health care users who died after they were moved from Life Esidimeni into unlicenced and unprepared NGOs. The judge must then decide whether, on the face of it, the conduct of any person caused or contributed to any of the deaths".
Stevens believes the deaths of at least 10 patients were caused by the conduct of the three officials.
"Ms Mahlangu made the initial decision to terminate the Life Esidimeni contract. She then continued to make a series of reckless decisions in relation to the project for months while chairing project team meetings".
"Dr Manamela was the de facto project leader and was directly involved in the implementation of the termination project. She signed licenses for NGOs that she knew had not been properly assessed and then failed to ensure that they were paid timeously".
"Ethel Ncube was the owner of Precious Angels, which saw the deaths of 20 mental health care users, the first of whom died less than two weeks after being moved into her care. As the owner of the NGO Precious Angels, Ms Ncube housed mental health care users in the most deplorable conditions," said Sasha
The Life Esidimeni inquest will resume at the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.
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