Dikgang Moseneke orders govt to pay R1.2m to each bereaved Life Esidimeni family

Families in the Life Esidimeni arbitration can now breathe a sigh of relief. Former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke on Monday awarded R1.2 million to each of the families of the deceased and surviving mental health patients in the Life Esidimeni tragedy.

Of the R1.2 million sum, R20 000 is to cover the funeral costs and R180 000 for the shock and trauma to the families of the patients who died after being transferred from the facility in 2016.

Government was, in addition, set to pay the legal costs for the arbitration and was ordered to provide trauma counselling for up to three family members for each patient, alive or surviving.

Moseneke vowed to donate his arbitration fees to law schools around the country to fund disadvantaged law students, and has ordered that a monument be erected in honour of the 144 mental health patients who died in the disastrous project.

Moseneke found that not only were mental healthcare users deprived of their rights and exposed to inhumane suffering, but their families were also stripped of their rights and dignity.

He found the state officials involved in the decision to terminate a longstanding contract with Life Esidimeni breached their constitutional obligations in carrying out the transfer of 1 800 patients from the facility to various NGOs around Gauteng.

The arbitrator castigated former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and senior health department officials Dr Barney Selebano and Dr Makgabo Manamela for their lack of accountability and found their reasons for terminating the contract with the facility were false.

He also found Mahlangu’s claims of ignorance of the risks and the subsequent consequences of the project after patients began dying in droves in 2016 to be false.

Moseneke also found that several officials’ claims that the ensuing deaths and suffering of surviving patients was not foreseeable were false.

Several civil society organisations, including Section 27 and the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, warned and repeatedly tried to assist in the project since 2015, but their warnings were either ignored or simply not heeded.

Moseneke rejected Mahlangu’s claim that the decision to terminate the project was a cost-cutting measure and was initiated by a “collective”.

He added that claimants who had yet to come forward, including families of patients who were either missing or unaccounted for, should be given the same awards and not be subjected to fresh legal processes.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za