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Family members of Life Esidimeni patients demand answers from Gauteng Premier

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Some family members of the former Life Esidimeni mentally-ill patients are at the office of Gauteng Premier David Makhura in Johannesburg to demand answers on when they’ll receive their financial compensation.

144 patients died when they were moved from Life Esidimeni familities to ill-equipped NGOs. All those who took part in the arbitration process have been paid.

However, the new claimants received a message last night informing them they’ll no longer receive the money on Friday as the provincial government had promised, due to a technical glitch.

Gauteng government spokesperson Thabo Masebe has confirmed that 13 families were supposed to receive payment. He’s assured them that their money has been processed and they will be paid soon.

One of the family members Linda Maliehe says they are tired of empty promises. “When are they going to pay, the timeframes, they must say. So is something that they don’t want to give us. Now they say they have technical glitches, which they don’t even explain to us what are those technical glitches. We’re still waiting for the explanation, nothing. So they say we must just wait, it could be fixed today, tomorrow, it can even take weeks. So we don’t know how long it’s gonna take. Honestly we don’t know what to do. Because we’ve tried everything, the media, clearly they do not care.”

Gauteng Government Spokesperson Thabo Masebe says, “There’s no need for anyone to panic. The Office of the Premier has indeed processed payments for some of the people who have made claims and have been verified with the Master of the High court.  The payments have been loaded onto the automated system and they will receive their money anytime, as soon as the money reaches their bank account.”

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