Life Esidimeni tragedy - ‘Government must lead us‚ not kill us

Lesiba Legwabe‚ who lost his brother in the Life Esidimeni saga‚ says he believes the tragedy led to his wife's death. After his brother's death last August‚ she was running around "like a hapless chicken".

Legwabe's brother‚ Mothofela‚ was a patient at a Life Esidimeni home for almost 33 years and was then moved to an NGO.

Legwabe was speaking at the arbitration hearings set up to help families find closure after at least 118 Life Esidimeni patients died by February.

His wife asked him if he ever found out why Mothofela died in the NGO. He never found out.

If he gets answers he will have a ceremony at his wife's grave and she "will rest peacefully"‚ he told the arbitration hearing.

State advocate Tebogo Hutamo said the government was sorry for what had happened.

Legwabe responded furiously. "The death of my brother caused the death of my wife. I am now a widow. She [my wife] was worried running around like a hapless chicken. I buried my brother on the 20th August [last year]‚ I had to bury my wife in December."

His wife had heart problems‚ he testified‚ but he believed that the stress of her brother-in-law's demise played a role in her death.

He said when 16 children were moved from a Life Esidimeni children's home into an NGO in 2007 and some died‚ the government should have learned from that mistake.

He told the state advocate: "Your apology doesn’t augur well. You knew. You should have learned. Those children were dying in NGOs."

Legwabe later said: "We elect people to be in government in order to lead us‚ not to kill us."

He said government officials didn’t do their jobs. "They are always in a meeting. I don’t know which meeting."

He also said he would have no closure if the Hawks and NPA didn’t "address the situation" suggesting that criminal charges needed to be laid against the officials who made the decision to close down Life Esidimeni homes.