DA pushes probe for Premier Makhura's false Esidimeni claims
12 February 2018
I have submitted a motion to the Gauteng Legislature to refer Premier David Makhura to the Legislature’s Integrity Commissioner for falsely claiming that he did not know that Life Esidimeni patients were being sent to NGOs rather than state facilities.
Makhura said in his State of the Province speech in February last year that he “would have never approved a plan to outsource mental health, a primary responsibility of the state to care for the vulnerable in society, to NGOs.”
He also said repeatedly under oath at the Esidimeni arbitration hearings that he was unaware that patients would be sent to NGOs as he thought that there were enough beds for them in state hospitals.
The clearest evidence that contradicts his claim is that he was in the Legislature on 15 March 2016 when former Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa said in an oral reply to my questions that 1835 patients from Esidimeni would be sent to new places before the end of June, and that “the NGOs have hired the staff. They have also been given licenses.”