Suspended Head of Gauteng Health Department Dr Barney Selebano says the decision to terminate the long-standing contract with Life Esidimeni was taken to save costs due to pressure from the national Treasury.
He has admitted that there was no due diligence before the patients were moved to ill-equipped Non-Governmental Organisations.
Selebano is being cross-examined about his role in the deaths of 143 mentally-ill patients who had been relocated.
He says the Life Esidimeni contract was terminated along with other contracts, after being told by the national Treasury that the department would not be receiving additional funding, and had to make means to cut costs.
He says it was a collective departmental decision, of which he was part, and the decision cannot be attributed to a single individual.
He admitted to signing the termination letter, as well as approving the plan to move patients to NGOs.
Selebano says he did not see anything wrong with the plan at the time.
Watch the hearing below:
