NGO where Life Esidimeni patients died still open‚ despite call to close it

Seven Life Esidimeni patients people died at Mosego Home in Krugersdorp on the West Rand‚ but the NGO‚ consisting of a row of houses‚ remains open after the health ombudsman recommended it closed.

Gauteng health acting head of department Dr Ernest Kenoshi testified during a family arbitration hearing on Friday that the NGO was one of six homes that are still open.

When ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba released his report on the Life Esidimeni saga‚ he said that various homes must be closed "immediately as their continuity poses high risk".

TimesLIVE visited Mosego home - it has no sign or identification - and is a row of residential houses. No patients could be seen sitting in the garden on Sunday.

A security guard and nurse said they could not speak to the media and barred a reporter from entering the home.

In his report on the Life Esidimeni saga‚ ombudsman professor Makgoba Malegapuru noted that Mosego directors knew the facility did not have capacity for mentally ill patients but took them anyway.

He listed details on how Marie Collitz's husband died at the NGO. "Two hours before Freddie Collitz passed away in the care of the Mosego Home in Krugersdorp‚ an old age home for psychiatric patients; he apparently had a wound to the head‚ blisters around the ankles and a sore on his nose. Additionally‚ photos show how wasted he was."

When family visited him they were not allowed inside and had to sit on the veranda.

When they forced their way inside‚ Collitz's son reported that beds had no sheets or blankets. The ombudsman said Freddie used a shoelace to keep up his pants as he had lost so much weight.

Marina Jamnik-Schmidt whose brother Nicholas died at the NGO‚ said a post mortem revealed how thin he was. Jamnik-Schmidt told TimesLIVE on Wednesday when she went into the home a few weeks after his death‚ that it did not look lived in and was clean. Elderly patients were sitting outside on boxes "staring into space". Another family member said he visited a relative and discovered an untreated‚ infected wound and doctors’ reports later described the relative as "wasted".

The ombudsman reported that Takalani NGO for intellectually disabled children‚ where other patients died ‚ was also inexplicably trading under Mosego's licence. Mosego appealed the ombudsman's findings about it and went before a tribunal headed by Retired Judge Bernard Ngoepe.

The owner‚ who only gave her name as Elizabeth‚ told TimesLIVE by phone on Sunday that the tribunal had cleared Mosego of the allegations and said the ombudsman was "talking lies".

She said the Mosego homes had been in existence for 10 years and had doctors and nurses working there with former matrons from Life Esidimeni. "I even know the secrets of Life Esidimeni‚ but I don't want to talk about that."

She said she would provide a report clearing the home to TimesLIVE on Monday.

"I am in bed. I am sick and it is not my working day … I am not opening my emails on the weekend and on Sunday. It's your deadline. It's not my deadline‚" she said.

The home now has four television sets for patients and receives regular inspections from the provincial health department.

Elizabeth said she had a valid operating licence from the Gauteng health department.