Pretoria - Former head of the Gauteng Department of Health Dr Barney Selebano yesterday said that while in retrospect some things could have been done differently, he was not sure whether the moving of mental health patients from Life Esidimeni facilities to NGOs was rushed or not.
Selebano told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that a lot of planning preceded the moving of the patients, and various stakeholders had held meetings on this since April 2015.
“I don’t know if I would describe this (the moving of patients) as a rush,” Selebano told Judge Mmonoa Teffo during the virtual inquest proceedings.
He was yesterday questioned by advocate Nasreen Rajab-Budlender, on behalf of the families of 44 mental health patients who died after they were moved from Life Esidimeni facilities in Gauteng during 2016 to NGOs – most of which could not take care of them – as to why the project went ahead, despite red flags being raised by organisations and others.
Selebano at the time signed the letter of termination with Life Esidimeni, and also co-signed the letter to implement the plan to relocate the patients.
Asked by Budlender whether he agreed with the plan, Selebano said “it was a plan which was capable of being implemented”. According to him, the former head of mental health in Gauteng, Dr Makgabo Manamela, ultimately implemented the plan.
Asked whether, as head of the department, he had discussed the plan with Manamela, Selebano said he did not do so face-to-face with her, but he did so on an executive level.
He earlier told the court the department, due to financial constraints, had to take cost-cutting measures.
According to Manamela, they often battled to pay bills, which included paying for the Life Esidimeni facilities at the end of some months.
Budlender referred to the evidence of then Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy earlier before the Life Esidimeni arbitration proceedings, where she testified that there was sufficient funding to keep Life Esidimeni open.
According to Creecy, it was never communicated to the health department that core services needed to be cut in order to cut costs. She said there was, in fact, an under-expenditure during the 2015/16 financial year.
“Why did you then have to shut down the Life Esidimeni facilities if there was enough money… you had other options?” Budlender asked.
Selebano said it was a question of revenue enhancement – “how do we spend what we have?”
He admitted there was some talk of buying the Life Esidimeni facilities so that the patients did not need to move. In this regard, he said the department could “scrape a 100-million or so” together, but this option was not further explored.
He also admitted plans were proposed to expand Gauteng’s three mental health hospitals by adding 900 beds.
Budlender also grilled him about various organisations which raised red flags prior to the moving of the patients. She said a letter was sent by the organisation of psychiatrists, in which they voiced their concerns about the negative consequences the move would have. Selebano responded that the patients were moved by him on instruction of former health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, who told him to close these facilities.
The arrest warrant issued for Manamela last week when she missed court due to illness was overturned yesterday, as she attended virtual proceedings.
Pretoria News