Court hears that Life Esidimeni contract ended to save Health Dept millions of rands
The High Court in Pretoria has heard that former Gauteng Health MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, was determined to end the Life Esidimeni contract in order to save the Department millions of rands. This emerged during her cross examination regarding the decision to relocate over 3000 mental health patients from the Life Esidimeni facilities, that was taken jointly with the provincial executive committee.
According to evidence, the closure of the facilities was aimed at saving the department and the provincial government over R300 million. About 144 patients died during the relocation period in 2016. Evidence leader, Adilla Hassim led the cross examination.
“And the point you’ve made in public, which I would like to repeat, is that we are not going to throw any patients away. If people have shares and personal interests at Life Esidimeni or Life Health Group, it’s not our problem. What we are saving is R300 million that we are spending at Life. Yes, we can treat the patients in either facility differently with the same level of care without necessarily spending that amount of money because we no longer have the money. If we have R300 million to pay for these patients, great, let’s go ahead with the contract. But we don’t have the money.” she adds
Source: SABC
In other news – Riky Rick’s Mother Writes A Book In His Honour
Mother of the late Riky Rick is still on her journey to healing and this time she has decided to ink her pain in a form of a book. Since losing Riky Rick to suicide, Louisa Zondo has been on a journey to healing as she seeks clarity.
Taking to Instagram, Louisa revealed the title and cover of her book, ‘Dearest Ma Riky’ which has a picture of her and the late rapper. Learn more
