EDITORIAL: Mahlangu must explain

It is hard to imagine the layers of grief experienced by the families of those who died in the Life Esidimeni tragedy. Certainly, the ongoing struggle to find the truth and the wait to hold those accountable must be debilitating.

You would think that those giving evidence at the Pretoria high court’s inquest into the disaster would be keen to help it get to a conclusion, but on Tuesday the inquiry was presented with the scene of former Gauteng finance MEC Barbara Creecy appearing to contradict former health MEC Qedani Mahlangu.

The facts of the matter are well established, they are upsetting, and we cannot forget them. At least 144 people died after the Gauteng health department, on Mahlangu’s watch, transferred more than 1,500 psychiatric patients from private facilities to unlicensed and woefully unequipped non-governmental organisations. Some were transported on the back of bakkies. These people had been well cared for at Life Esidimeni. Within weeks they were dying of hunger and neglect.

At the inquest two weeks ago, Mahlangu once again blamed the tragedy on the need to reduce costs. On Tuesday, though, Creecy laid out in detail that in fact the department had repeatedly underspent its budgets. If Creecy is correct, the onus is on Mahlangu to explain the real reason behind the decision to cancel the Life Esidimeni contract. The families are waiting.