Esidimeni Inquest: Qedani Mahlangu testimony postponed to May
Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu’s legal counsel has been granted a postponement to 2 May 2023 in the Life Esidimeni Inquest.
Mahlangu was expected to take the stand on Tuesday as the last witness in the High Court process looking into whether anyone can be held criminally liable for the deaths of more than 140 mental health patients between 2015 and 2016.
More than a thousand mental health services users were moved from the Life Esidimeni facility after Mahlangu, in a capacity as MEC, announced the termination of a long-term contract with the private healthcare provider. It was later found they had been moved to ill-equipped non-governmental organisations across the province.
Advocate Laurence Hodes requested a two-week postponement, citing outstanding payment from the office of the State Attorney.
“We’ve never previously requested a postponement for our purposes, our client has always been in attendance, and has always respected the [court’s] rulings on when the matter will proceed. We just find ourselves in a very difficult position having not secured payment from the state attorney’s office and having waited for so many months for them to remedy the problem to no avail,” he said.
After deliberations with the legal representatives of the other parties in the matter, including the families of the deceased patients, Judge Mmonoa Teffo granted the postponement.
“Having listened to the arguments by all the parties involved in this inquest, for the application for a postponement by Mr Hodes, counsel for the former MEC Qedani Mahlangu, I am satisfied that it is in the interest of justice to grant the postponement. I, therefore, postpone this inquest to the 2nd of May 2023 to afford the legal team of the former MEC the opportunity to deal with their issues and finalise their preparations,” Teffo said.
The Gauteng government confirmed it had begun making payment to the claimants of the tragedy based on recommendations by former deputy chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, who oversaw the arbitration hearings in 2018.
By February this year, more than R400 million had been paid towards some of the more than 500 claims that had been received.
No one has been arrested for the deaths.
