Health boss grilled on Esidimeni

The most senior Gauteng health department official to testify before the arbitration hearings on the Life Esidimeni tragedy, Dr Makgoba Manamela, did so on Monday and earned the ire of the presiding officer, former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke.

She had been called on to explain her role in the events that led to the death of 143 psychiatric patients.

She contradicted herself and was repeatedly told by Moseneke to speak slowly and answer the question.

Manamela was found by the health ombudsman to have written invalid licences for ill-equipped and unqualified NGOs in whose care patientsdied.

Manamela told evidence leader Nontlantla Yina that all the NGOs to which Life Esidimeni patients were transferred were licensed and had been "inspected by a team" before she issued the paperwork authorising the transfers.

Yina said she had issued a licence to Precious Angels that gave the address of the NGO as Lynwood, but the organisation had never operated there.

Precious Angels, at which 20 Esidimeni patients died, has its premises in Danville and Atteridgeville.

When asked how an inspection could have taken place at an incorrect address, Manamela was unable to explain and did not answer.

Moseneke became annoyed and said: "This is not a lesson on how clever we can be. Do you know how many people died at Precious Angels?"

Manamela said she knew patients' families had not wanted their relatives to be moved from Life Esidimeni.

She said 773 patients at Life Esidimeni had no known family members.

Two NGO owners have testified that they were "forced" by Manamela to take patients they could not adequately accommodate.

Manamela denied this.

"That is not true. That is not true," she said.

Her lawyer delayed her testimony by about four hours by asking for a postponement, which Moseneke denied.