QEDANI MAHLANGU MUST ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR ESIDIMENI DEATHS
Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu is scheduled to appear tomorrow (Monday 22 January) at the Esidimeni arbitration hearings chaired by Justice Dikgang Moseneke.
I hope that she avoids any more stalling tactics and testifies openly and truthfully without her previous arrogance that led to this tragedy in which 143 people died.
The officials who have appeared at the hearings have described a climate of fear that arose from Mahlangu’s determination to cancel the Esidimeni contract and send patients to unsuitable NGOs.
Mahlangu needs to answer the following key questions:
- What were the true reasons for cancelling the Esidimeni contract when a study commissioned by the department found that it was cost-effective and provided good care?
- Why did she ignore so persistently all the warnings that moving so many patients to NGOs would lead to deaths?
- Why did she mislead the Gauteng Legislature by providing untrue replies to my questions in the Legislature? She had a constitutional duty to reply accurately to questions in the Legislature, and personally signed those for written reply, but on 18 November 2015, for instance, she said that only 591 patients would be placed with NGOs when more than 1000 patients were actually sent to NGOs.
- What information did she provide to Premier David Makhura and the Executive Council in this matter, and what was their complicity in the decisions that were taken?
Qedani Mahlangu should seek to make amends with honest testimony and a sincere apology to the relatives of the victims who have suffered so much from her ill-considered actions.
She should acknowledge her personal and direct responsibility for this terrible tragedy rather than blaming officials as scapegoats.
Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 21 January 2018
