ANC shields Premier from questions on Esidimeni deaths

22 February 2017

The ANC in the Gauteng Legislature's Oversight Committee on the Premier's Office and Legislature (OCPOL) has shielded Premier David Makhura from questions relating to his role in the deaths of more than 100 patients transferred to dodgy NGOs after the cancellation of the Life Esidimeni contract.

According to the minutes of a previous OCPOL meeting, the committee had agreed that an agenda item be included "to deliberate on the role of the Premier on the Health Ombudsman's findings in the Esidimeni report."

Premier Makhura appeared before the committee yesterday and gave a report on the implementation of the Health Ombudsman's recommendations in his report.

But I was blocked from asking Makhura why he had not acted on the letter that Wits University occupational therapy students wrote to him on 18 January last year in which they warned about moving the patients from Esidimeni's Waverley Care Centre in Germiston.

I also wanted the Premier's response to the claim made in the Ombud's report by Dr Barney Selebano, the Head of the Gauteng Health Department, that "the decision to start deinstitutionalization of mental health care users from Life Healthcare Esidimeni was undertaken in the Office of the Premier of Gauteng, the Honourable David Makhura, together with the HoD".

ANC Chief Whip Brian Hlongwa said that the committee should not be turned into a committee of inquiry on this matter, and Chairperson Godfrey Tsotetsi refused to allow me to put my questions to the Premier.

I am disappointed that the oversight committee is not fulfilling its role in holding the Premier and his office to account for the failure to effectively monitor the disastrous transfer of patients that led to the deaths.

This was despite a plethora of media reports on the plight of the patients and complaints by the relatives, as well as two court applications where the Premier was cited as a respondent.

The DA will use other opportunities to hold the Premier to account, including a no-confidence motion that will table in the Legislature to force his removal in terms of section 130 (3) of the Constitution.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 22 February 2017