LISTEN | Mahlangu, Manamela negligent in deaths of mentally ill patients: court

Former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and the province's former mental health head, Dr Makgabo Manamela, have been found negligent and responsible for the deaths of some of the psychiatric patients who died in the Life Esidimeni saga, the Pretoria high court has ruled.

Judge Mmonoa Teffo headed the inquest into the cause of deaths of 10 patients specifically and handed down judgment on Wednesday afternoon.

The dead are Matlakala Motsoahae, Virginia Machpelah, Terrence Chaba, Lucky Maseko, Josiah Daniel, Frans Dekker, Charity Ratsotso, Deborah Phehla, Koketso Mogoerane and Christopher Makhoba.

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The names were contained in NGO Section 27's submissions on behalf of the families of 44 mental healthcare users.

The NPO focused on these 10 “due to the availability of more extensive information in respect of some of the deaths, and our limited capacity to undertake a full analysis in respect of each death”.

“In these submissions, we limit our argument to the deaths of 10 mental healthcare users. We do not, however, suggest that these are the only deaths that can be attributed to the conduct of the above three actors,” the organisation said at the time.

While Section 27 submitted that “based on the evidence before the court, a prima facie case of culpable homicide has been made” against Mahlangu, Manamela and Precious Angels' Ethel Ncube, the court ultimately ruled only against the first two.

In her judgment, Teffo said: “Having heard all the evidence in this inquest, I have come to the conclusion that the deaths of the [above-mentioned] deceased, were negligently caused by the conduct of Qedani Mahlangu and Dr Makgabo Manamela.

“Mahlangu proceeded to terminate the contract between the Life Esidimeni care centre and the Gauteng department of health despite numerous expert advice and warnings from professionals in mental health and stakeholders. Her conduct led to the regrettable and unfortunate deaths, some of which could have been avoided,” she said.

Teffo said Manamela “proceeded to hastily facilitate” the implementation of the termination plan, also against the advice of experts.

“She could've saved the many lives as she visited the NGOs and could see that they were not adequately equipped and some of the personnel were not adequately qualified to care for the [patients].

“Effectively, Mahlangu and Manamela created the circumstances in which the deaths were inevitable.”

Teffo also made individual findings, as part of section 16(2) of the Inquests Act, on:

• a) the identity of each deceased;
• b) the cause or likely cause of death;
• c) their date of death; and
• d) whether “the death was brought about by any act or omission prima facie involving or amounting to an offence on the part of any person”.

She said: “Consequently, the court comes to the following findings: in respect of the deaths no autopsy reports were found, save for Motsoahae, the court is unable to make a finding regarding the question in 2(d).

“In respect of deaths where autopsies were performed, save for Machpelah, Chaba, Maseko, Daniels, Dekker, Ratsotso, Phehla and Mogoerane, the court is unable to make a finding regarding the [same] question,” she said.

The court was also tasked with determining whether the conduct of any individual directly caused or contributed to the deaths.

In 2018‚ retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke headed an arbitration hearing in which he found the rights of mentally ill patients and their families were flagrantly violated and disregarded.

Moseneke said more than 1,400 patients had survived “torturous conditions”. Some had been transported on the back of trucks like cattle‚ others did not get medication and some appeared to have starved to death.

He ruled the families should each receive payments of R20,000 for funeral expenses‚ R180,000 for shock and psychological trauma and R1m in constitutional damages.

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