Where does buck stop in psych patient death saga?

The revelation in a report released by health ombudsman Malegapuru Mokgoba on Wednesday that 94 psychiatric patients died after being shunted aside by Gauteng health facilities last year – and not 36 as previously reported – is a scandal of truly horrific proportions.

Even more shameless was the revelation that Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, who belatedly resigned her post on Wednesday, had attempted to have the report altered to indicate these patients had died in hospital – only one reportedly did – and not succumbed to lonely deaths from causes such as malnutrition, diarrhoea, dehydration and heart attacks.

Equally sickening is the revelation that when Mahlangu’s department terminated its contract with Life Esidimeni, citing costs, more than 1 000 patients unable to fend for themselves were shipped off to several Gauteng NGOs in 2015 without adequate checks and the requisite authorisation.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi only ordered an investigation as the death count rose, with a shocked chorus of opposition parties and the families calling for Mahlangu’s head.

But the callous nature of how deep this insensitivity reaches cannot be laid solely at Mahlangu’s door.

It would be illogical to conclude that others in the chain were not complicit.

Harry S Truman had a sign on his Oval Office desk during his tenure as American president – ironically produced in a federal prison workshop – that famously proclaimed: “The buck stops here.”

The serial bungling that precipitated the tragic deaths of defenceless citizens unable to adequately care for themselves is a catastrophic example of a complete breakdown in compassion and a human tragedy almost beyond comprehension.

Now comes the essential issue of determining exactly where this appallingly obscene buck stops, while a sickened nation weeps in sympathy with the bereaved relatives.

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