Former Gauteng Health MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, will continue to face cross examination in the Life Esidimeni inquest sitting in the High Court in Pretoria.
This is regarding her role in the controversial decision that led to the relocation of over 3 000 mental health patients from Life Esidimeni facilities.
During the relocation period, 147 patients died. Some died while being accommodated at ill equipped and unlicensed NGOs in 2016 following the closure of Life Esidimeni due to a lack of funding.
Yesterday, Mahlangu testified that she was not responsible to resolve all the challenges and problems that were faced by the NGOs.
“I will answer in general terms I did not deal with individual NGOs. When I met with officials, we agreed to do certain things. The operational issues are at the district level. There are people on the ground implementing. So, (I) could not be in the position to have eyes and ears on the ground unless someone come to me and say(s) or ask about progress on so. What I can confirm based on reports on the email were payments of the NGOs. Those were sorted out.”
During her testimony, Mahlangu also struggled to answer the question of who took the final decision to terminate the Life Esidimeni contract as a cost-cutting measure for the Health Department.
More details of her testimony from yesterday in the report below:
