Qedani lied, and patients died, but she was too big to fire

24 February 2017  

Madam Speaker, we all need to examine our roles in the face of the immensity of the tragedy of more than 100 deaths of mental health patients.

On this side of the House, we can ask - did we probe enough and did we question enough to prevent the deaths?

We all do our soul-searching in this matter.

But when it comes to accountability and explanation, it is the Honourable Premier who needs to lead the way.

The Honourable Premier made an extraordinary statement when he said that the Executive Council and he himself would never have approved a plan to outsource mental health to NGOs.

I don't understand this at all.

This provincial government has for many years financed NGOs who look after mental health patients.

Former Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu said last year that patients from Life Esidimeni had been placed with NGOs for more than 10 years.

So it's not an issue of principle, but rather the suitability of NGOs in this matter.

The Honourable Premier wants us to believe that he was not aware of the following:

- numerous statements by his Health MEC

- numerous media reports, including concerns expressed by societies of medical professionals and hard-hitting investigations by eNCA Checkpoint

- three protests by relatives outside the head office of the Gauteng Health Department

-  two court cases in which the Premier was named as a respondent

- a letter in January 2016 from occupational therapy students about the risks of closing the Waverley centre run by Life Esidimeni

And members of this House know how many times I warned about what was happening.

But the Honourable Premier did not hear, or maybe he didn't want to hear.

In a written reply to my questions in October 2015, the former Health MEC said that 591 patients from Esidimeni would be sent to NGOs.

This was a lie because many more were sent to NGOs, but still, the Premier should have been listening.

In the debate on the Health Annual Report on 30 November 2015 I warned that the planned transfer was a “looming disaster” and my exact words were “Please, please reconsider.”

But the Honourable Premier did not hear.

He did not hear either when he was sitting in this House on 15 March last year. The former Health MEC said in an oral reply to me that preparations were being made with NGOs to receive Esidimeni patients.

Did you not hear that, Honourable Premier?

The Honourable Premier would still not have heard if I had not forced the former Health MEC to reveal to this House on 13 September last year that 36 patients had died.

Yes, the Health Ombudsman was appointed to investigate, but the Honourable Premier did not act to fire MEC Qedani Mahlangu even as more lives were being lost.

I repeatedly called for her to be fired, as you will recall with my daily count of the days she still remained in office.

141 days - that's how long it took her to resign.

The Ombudsman has found that 77 patients had actually died at the time she told this House that 36 had died.

I do not have to refer anymore to the previous Health MEC as the Honourable Qedani Mahlangu.

The truth is that she was not honourable.

Qedani lied, and patients died.

Remember also that shameful moment when she refused to answer more questions on the deaths in this House. And the Premier sat here and did nothing.

What was the real reason the Honourable Premier did not replace her immediately after 36 deaths were revealed?

The reason is simple:

Qedani was too big to fire.

Too big in a ruling party that has lost its moral compass.

ANC veterans who still follow the values of the ANC’s moral giants like Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu now decry the sad decline of their party.

The first Premier of this province Tokyo Sexwale, said recently: “People are stealing from the lowest to the highest office".

Matthews Phosa has said: “During the Struggle heroes died so that we can govern; now innocent people die in Marikana and psychiatric wards because we govern”.

Honourable Premier, I said in the first SOPA debate of your premiership that the ANC could not succeed because of the three C's - Cronyism, Cadre deployment and Corruption.

This is now joined by the four Ds:

Death, Deceit, Dishonour and Disgrace

The Honourable Premier has presided over the largest medical disaster in this country, apart from HIV/Aids, since 1994.

It is an indelible stain on your premiership. This is what people will remember you for.

As I said in this House in December last year, your failure to fire Qedani missed the opportunity to show that the ANC in Gauteng is genuinely different from the ANC that refuses to hold President Jacob Zuma to account, and others who get away with outrageous things.

Your excuses are very thin. If you were really honourable you would not claim inexcusable ignorance - you would resign.

Henceforth, if you remain in office, you are Premier “I didn’t know” Makhura.

The Health Ombudsman described scenes where patients were treated like cattle at an auction and transported in bakkies, some tied down with sheets.

These were silent deaths because there was no-one to hear their cries.

No-one in power in this province was prepared to listen to all the warnings and clear evidence of the disaster that was happening.

It was the heartless against the helpless.

And you, Mr Premier, allowed it to happen.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 23 February 2017