The former director of the Gauteng Mental Health Services, Doctor Mmakgabo Manamela, has told the Life Esidimeni inquest that most of the mental health care users were relocated to Pretoria following the June 2016 marathon relocation.
Manamela, who was testifying in the High Court in Pretoria, said this was after the department’s relocation project team had identified some suitable facilities in which to house mentally-ill patients. She said during cross-examination that the facilities that were earmarked included a hospital in Cullinan and the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital.
The inquest is probing the deaths of 144 mentally-ill patients during the June 2016 relocation from the Life Esidimeni facilities to ill-equipped and unregistered NGOs. Manamela testified through an interpreter.
“There’s a hospital that’s called Cullinan which mostly catered for severe profound chronic mental disability health patients around Tshwane, where we added 100 beds. We renovated that hospital.”
“Another reason was that Weskoppies was around Tshwane. We also renovated that hospital to accommodate health care users.”
Manamela was meant to testify in August, but her legal team asked for a postponement, saying she was not ready. She is a key witness and is expected to shed more light on the transfer of patients to ill-equipped NGOs, which resulted in the deaths of 144 mental health patients.
Last year, during an arbitration hearing, Manamela told the High Court in Pretoria that the decision to move mentally-ill patients from Life Esidimeni facilities was not hers, but that of then MEC, Qedani Mahlangu.
VIDEO: Life Esidimeni Inquest update from two months ago
