EDITORIAL: Even historic Esidimeni ruling is not enough
When 144 vulnerable patients placed in the care of state health facilities die, someone has to be held accountable
Esidimeni means "place of dignity". But there was nothing dignified about the manner in which 144 mentally ill patients died after the Gauteng health department transferred them out of the Life Esidimeni facility to ill-funded and badly equipped NGOs in 2016. The evidence heard by the Life Esidimeni arbitration inquiry, headed by retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, revealed that some patients were transported to these new facilities on the back of trucks, like cattle. Many did not get medication. Some appeared to have starved to death, with the post-mortem of one, Deborah Phehla, showing she had eaten balls of brown paper and plastic, causing asphyxiation. Releasing the findings of the arbitration on Monday, Moseneke awarded the families total compensation per claimant of R1.2m. The ruling is a significant milestone. This is the first time in SA history that constitutional damages have been awarded for the violation of the rights of mental-healthcare patients. And though ...
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