Selebano: ‘If I could see into future….I would have stopped the whole thing’

06 December 2017 - 14:02 By Katharine Child
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Suspended Gauteng Health HOD Dr Barney Selebano.
Suspended Gauteng Health HOD Dr Barney Selebano.
Image: Moeletsi Mabe/The Times

Suspended head of the Gauteng Health Department Barney Selebano says if he had foreseen the Life Esidimeni tragedy‚ he would not have ended the contract to close the psychiatric homes and move 1‚712 patients into NGO.

"I wish I could go back to the time and act differently‚" he told the Esidimeni hearing on Wednesday.

In total 143 mentally ill patients died‚ mostly in overcrowded‚ underfunded NGOs.

He said he would have done things differently if he could have "foreseen …the future adverse consequences ….the unintended consequences".

Selebano is testifying under subpoena at the Life Esidimeni hearing as he was head of the Gauteng Health Department when the move took place.

Section 27 advocate Adila Hassim has been cross-examining him as to why he ignored warnings by psychiatrists that shutting down the homes and de-institutionalising patients who needed 24-hour care would have a "devastating" effect.

The two letters written by psychiatrists and sent in 2015 warned that NGOs or "community mental health homes" were inadequate for these patients and hospital beds for chronically ill mental health patients were in short supply. They also warned such a decision to move all 1‚700 patients would "escalate" costs and that violent mental health patients could land up in the overcrowded prison system.

Selebano said on Tuesday he didn’t "recall" the first email sent in April. On Wednesday he explained whether or not‚ he had read the warning letter in June.

Selebano said: "if I could see into the future….I would have stopped the whole thing."

Hassim replied: "The foresight was provided it to you …. [in warning letters].

"You were informed of the risks."

She told him: "You accept that you received warnings that if you are going down that road that there were very bad things going to happen."

She wanted to know what he felt when he was warned that a mass move of 1‚712 mentally-ill patients would a be bad idea.

Selebano said: "I don’t know what was my feeling at that time. I don't know …it was 2015 . Was I worried…was I concerned? This letter was sent to the MEC."

Hassim accused him: "You didn’t do anything with these warnings."

Selebano has said on the stand he is "accountable" but has not answered questions in detail about what happened.

He also admitted in a passing comment that Life Esidimeni was often not paid on time by the Gauteng health department.

A senior government insider said to TimesLIVE that a head of a provincial department would sign hundreds of documents and contracts a day and receive thousands of emails daily.

The person explained that with the administrative burden it would be possible to miss emails or not remember what one signed. This insider said senior heads of departments relied on staff underneath them to do their job and alert them about problems. This is what Selebano has testified.

He said he had hundreds of clinics‚ "more than 34 hospitals and 67‚000 employees" to oversee and relied on managers to do their jobs.

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