DA presses NPA for a time frame of Esidimeni prosecutions

16 July 2024

The Democratic Alliance has studied the full 196-page Life Esidimeni Inquest judgement, and we will be pressing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to lay a broad range of charges within a tight time frame.

It is significant that Judge Mmonoa Teffo accepted that earlier evidence from Justice Dikgang Moseneke’s arbitration in this matter could be accepted as part of the inquest proceedings.

There is an enormous amount of testimony that should be used to prosecute not only former Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and Mental Health Director Makgabo Manamela, who were found liable for the deaths of nine people, but others implicated in the suffering of the hundreds of mental patients sent to unsuitable NGOs.

Mahlangu and Manamela should be charged with culpable homicide, but there were also many contraventions of the Mental Health Care Act (MHCA) and the National Health Act (NHA), which have severe penalties for negligent treatment.

For instance, According to Section 70 of the MHCA:
“(1) Any person who –
(a) misrepresents a fact in any application, report, record, certificate;
(b) obstructs or hinders any person in the performance of his or her functions;
(c) neglects, abuses or treats a mental health care user in any degrading manner or allows the user to be treated in that manner;
.... is guilty of an offence.”
DA Spokesperson on Justice Glynnis Breytenbach will be writing to the NPA to provide details by 15 August this year of who will be charged, and for what offences, concerning the Esidimeni tragedy.

She will question them in Parliament’s Justice Portfolio Committee if firm assurances are not given in this regard.

We need to know what measures are being taken to expedite the charges and court procedures, so that justice is finally served in this terrible tragedy.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 16 July 2024