EDITORIAL | How is it possible that, after Life Esidimeni, we face a similar crisis?

The mentally challenged are among the most vulnerable in society and despite platitudes to the contrary, it seems they continue to get the short end of the stick from government.

In 2016, 144 patients died after being transferred from Life Esidimeni health-care facilities to NGOs after the end of a contract between Gauteng and the hospital group.

Life Esidimeni provided highly specialised chronic care to about 2,000 mental health patients, but it turns out some of these NGOs weren’t licensed properly and didn’t have the facilities to take proper care of patients.

Hearings by retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke brought to the fore shocking levels of depravity — cruelty, neglect and indifference on the part of government officials.

Two years later, Moseneke ordered the government to pay damages to the families of deceased mental health-care users.

And now, two years later, it turns out that 81 of the 352 claimants have not been paid.

The Gauteng premier’s office revealed this during a briefing on Thursday. It added that only R6.5m of the R120m budgeted for compensation to Life Esidimeni victims and their families has been paid out this year.

According to DA shadow MEC for health Jack Bloom, the “sad situation” caused by underspending was due to lockdown restrictions which resulted in delays in the verification process of claimants.

To compound matters, according to Bloom, the aggrieved family members are going to court next week to ensure their own lawyers administer the trust as they mistrust the lawyers the provincial government will appoint.

In KwaZulu-Natal, more than 600,000 patients who live in hostels or attend day-care facilities at the country’s biggest and oldest non-profit mental health-care organisation face a looming “Life Esidimeni” crisis.

The Durban and Coastal Mental Health society is on the brink of collapse as financials show it is R6m in the red and being sued for about R2.4m for a service provider’s unpaid bill.

As a result of a cost-cutting exercise, standards of care and food at the hostels have deteriorated, according to relatives of patients and staff.

The new board says acting on recommendations from the provincial department of health, it has instigated a forensic investigation into historic “improprieties and shortcomings”, and instituted a number of provincial health department measures to “avert an Esidimeni kind of situation”.

But the question is how did the situation at this facility become so dire?

Where are the alarm bells? At what stage is there intervention and accountability?

The provincial departments of health and social development say they are concerned about “alleged goings-on at this facility”, but this is not enough.

These are just two examples of violations of the rights to life, dignity and health of this vulnerable sector of our population.

If we continue to allow the systemic issues within SA’s mental health-care system to go unchecked, we have learned nothing from the tragedy of 2016 and the lives of those 144 people will be in vain.

We can’t afford to dishonour them by allowing a repeat of that outrage.