Life Esidimeni inquest postponed over legal fees
The Pretoria High Court has agreed to postpone the Life Esidimeni inquest yet again following a last-minute request by former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu’s lawyers.
They asked the court to hold off on proceedings until next month for their legal fees to be settled by the State Attorney.
Mahlangu is among former top officials at the department who are expected to account for the tragedy that claimed the lives of 144 mental health patients in a botched transfer project in 2016.
Mahlangu’s lawyers told the Pretoria High Court that they had not been able to prepare to lead her testimony after the State Attorney failed to pay their legal fees on time.
Lawyer Laurence Hodes said that the delays in payment were no fault of their own, claiming the team has complied with all requirements by the State Attorney’s office.
Hodes said that he expected that the legal fees would be settled soon, allowing for the team to resume their preparations.
“The delays are out of our hands. It’s the State Attorney that can’t, for some unknown reason, can’t speed the payment procedure up or work things out within their situation.”
The State is still paying for Mahlangu’s fees even though she resigned from her job in 2017, in the wake of a damning report about the death of 144 mental health patients.
A rough estimate of the lawyers’ fees sits in the range of a quarter of a million rand for a single day’s work.
Mahlanngu has been implicated by previous witnesses at the inquest, who claim she signed off on the deadly decision to cancel the longstanding Life Esidimeni contract.
The inquest, which is set to determine if anyone should be held criminally liable for the fatalities, will resume next month.
-EWN
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