Police find three Esidimeni patients at death NGO

13 February 2018

I have been informed by the police that they have found 5 of the 62 patients that were listed as missing since they were discharged from Life Esidimeni in mid-2016.

Three of these patients are at the Mosego Home in Krugersdorp which the Health Ombudsman ordered closed after 7 patients died there.

Another patient was discharged from Mosego in October last year, and the police say that one patient is deceased but provide no details on the circumstances of his death.

I am horrified that three Esidimeni patients are still at one of the NGOs that Health Ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba said should be closed "immediately as their continuity poses high risk".

Makgoba wrote about Freddie Collitz who died at Mosego Home: “He apparently had a wound to the head‚ blisters around the ankles and a sore on his nose. Additionally‚ photos show how wasted he was."

Marina Jamnik-Schmidt, whose brother Nicholas died at the NGO‚ said a post-mortem revealed that he was very thin.

Andrew Peterson testified at the Esidimeni arbitration hearings that when he saw his 69-year-old uncle Victor Truter at Mosego he was hungry, thirsty and in pain due to an untreated boil.

The Gauteng Health Department pledged to remove all Esidimeni patients from NGOs last year, but seems to have overlooked three patients at Mashego.

I have written today to Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa to remove these patients immediately and place them at a reputable institution.

I commend the police for finding some of the patients after I opened 62 missing person cases last week, and I hope further progress is made in finding the others.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 13 February 2018