Africa-Press – South-Africa. The former Gauteng health head of department, Dr Tiego “Barney” Selebano, says former health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi asked him to shut down facilities where mental health patients were dying.
Giving testimony at the Life Esidimeni inquest on Monday, Selebano said he learnt from media reports and the Gauteng legislature in August 2016 that patients moved to NGOs were dying.
Once he learnt about the deaths, Selebano said he met with former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and senior managers to discuss the matter.
The department also met with former community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane and the police.
“We agreed that we must have post-mortems of all the patients.”
At the same time, Selebano said, he was in constant contact with Motsoaledi, who urged him to shut down the NGOs.
“I told the minister to talk to the MEC. Don’t instruct me. You must tell the MEC to instruct me.”
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He said alongside Mahlangu and other managers, they went to Tshwane and moved all patients from the NGOs to hospitals. He did the same thing in Soweto.
“We were talking constantly … but the gist, he was saying ‘Barney, you are a doctor. You have patients that are passing away. It will not go well for the department, for the country. You’ve got to remove all those patients’.
“He said, ‘go and close Cullinan [care and rehabilitation centre].’ I said minister; I don’t have those powers. You can close it with the premier [David Makhura]; I can’t do it. But I went there nevertheless … and corrected where I could.”
Selebano said Motsoaledi insisted he was talking to him “as a doctor”.
“He said your MEC is not a doctor. She may not understand. I said, I hear you, minister, and I see your point, but you have to speak to the MEC. I can’t. I report to the MEC. They are politicians, both of them.”
Stand
Selebano is the first of three senior managers, who have been implicated as the leaders of the Life Esidimeni project, to take the stand at the inquest.
In earlier evidence before the inquest, they were implicated as the main officials behind the hurried removal of 2 000 mental healthcare patients from Life Esidimeni facilities to NGOs.
Last week, Judge Mmonoa Teffo issued a warrant of arrest for the former head of mental health services, Dr Makgabo Manamela, for failing to appear at the inquest because of ill health.
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She is expected back at the inquest on Wednesday, or the warrant will be enforced.
Mahlangu is also expected to give testimony soon.
The Life Esidimeni project saw the death of 141 mental health patients, who were moved from Life Esidimeni facilities to ill-equipped NGOs.
Teffo’s inquest aims to determine whether anyone can be held criminally liable for the deaths.
How it started
Selebano said the project came from the Gauteng cabinet led by Makhura. It was then moved to the provincial budget council and to the department for implementation.
“As the head of administration, when the decision came, we sat together … and a decision was taken that I must terminate the contract. It was a decision taken by the Gauteng team.”
He added Manamela prepared the termination plan.
Selebano said the plan was approved at a senior management meeting after her presentation.
“We were happy with the plan.”
He added Manamela’s department was in charge of implementing the plan.
Selebano said there was an impasse when stakeholders like Section 27, the SA Depression and Anxiety Group and patients’ families asked that the plan be scrapped and redone.
He added there were weekly meetings chaired by Mahlangu to assess the project.
A letter that project leader Levy Mosenogi wrote to Mahlangu, after a meeting with patients’ families raising concerns about the project, was read to Selebano.
In the letter, Mosenogi said the project might have “unintended consequences” on the patients and staff.
The families asked for an extension of the contract.
Mosenogi added the families were worried about the patients relapsing and asked that the contract be postponed to the next financial year.
Selebano said Mosenogi raised the letter in a meeting with Mahlangu.
“As he was talking, the MEC said, ‘Hey, Mr Mosenogi, do you work for LE [Life Esidimeni] now’? Some people chuckled.”
He added the termination date for the contract was moved to June; it was supposed to expire in March.
The inquest continues on Tuesday morning.
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