Angst under the surface

The neatly made-up dormitory rooms of Takalani Home for the Mentally Disabled in Diepkloof do not betray the facility's dark reputation as the place where 14 Gauteng patients died.

Takalani looks well run and secure, with high red walls surrounding and a security guard manning the gate.

The Times was yesterday taken on a tour of the facility, which is vehemently denying culpability in the deaths of psychiatric patients who were sent there last year.

Health ombudsman Malekgapuru Makgoba recommended in a report this week that Takalani be shut down following the deaths of 94 psychiatric patients sent to various NGOs across Gauteng.

Makgoba said keeping Takalani open posed "high risks".

The NGO plans to appeal against Makgoba's recommendations, saying that it was not to blame for the deaths.

According to its management, only three of those who died did so on the premises. Others who were housed at Takalani died in government hospitals.

• READ MORE: High level task team visits NGOs to prepare for the transfer of mental health patientsA government task team has started its preparation for the relocation of mental health patients in Gauteng‚ currently being cared for by NGOs. 

The ombudsman also found the facility was operating without a valid licence, but the organisation denied this and showed The Times a framed licence hung on the wall of one of the manager's offices.

"We are studying the report and we reserve our right to appeal," said Dorothy Sekhukhune, a clinician at Takalani.

The building also houses a school for mentally challenged learners.

When The Times team visited the facility, it was quiet and some patients were seen sitting outside under the shade of colourful carports.

The office has CCTV cameras that show all areas of the facility, including the pantry, where the food is kept.

Takalani centre manager Michael Seshoka said the home received 117 patients from Life Esidimeni last year.

But, according to Sekhukhune, none of them came with "full" clinical reports.

"When you don't get a clinical report, you struggle to get to know what is actually happening with the patient," Sekhukhune said.

• READ MORE: EFF lay murder charges against former health MECEconomic Freedom Fighters members in the Gauteng legislature have laid murder charges against former Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and the entire Gauteng cabinet after it was revealed in a damning report that 94 mental patients died due to the provincial health department’s negligence.

She said the patients who died under their care did so soon after they arrived at Takalani.

The patients, Sekhukhune said, died while doctors and specialists were trying to make their clinical findings.

"Part of the concerns we raised when they came in, we looked at their medication and some of them were on heavy medication."

Sekhukhune said they compiled their own reports on the patients and informed the department that some of the patients had arrived at the facility without any records of their blood levels.

"[When] you are handing over care of a patient, you have to be in a position to know what is wrong with [the patient] and what are other issues that were there, what blood levels were taken and when they were taken and how was [the patient's] behaviour," Sekhuk-hune said.

Takalani said although it had told the health department's clinical team that it had not received the reports on the transferred patients its requests went unanswered.