Protests suggest the Esidimeni debacle will dog ANC on the 2019 Elections stump

The Gauteng provincial government’s efforts and achievements were trumpeted on a full page in the Sunday Times this weekend, in what was termed partner content, but appeared to be sponsored content. Elections are coming and the ANC in Gauteng needs to promote its successes, but it can’t escape the Life Esidimeni debacle.

Protesters marched to Premier David Makhura’s office and the ANC’s Luthuli House on Monday demanding relatives be paid due compensation after the provincial government decided to move over 1,000 chronic psychiatric patients from Life Esidimeni facilities into NGOs and community care, leading to the death of at least 144 patients.

In March, former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, in the Life Esidimeni arbitration, awarded families of those who died R1.2-million in compensation and families of the survivors R1.18-million.

In June, the Gauteng government paid R159-million to 134 claimants, but Moseneke’s award allows for new claimants to continue to come forward and in recent months around 200 new compensation claims have been lodged, but have not been paid.

“To me, there’s no respect at all,” said one claimant, who lodged her application in March, about the Gauteng government. She wanted to remain anonymous to avoid being targeted if she receives a payout.

She said her uncle was admitted into Life Esidimeni, Randfontein in 1975 and had received decent care until she heard in 2015 the facility might close. In early 2016, a social worker called and said her uncle had been moved to an NGO. He survived.

Her mother went to visit the patient at the NGO. She thought he might die.

“He looked tired. He looked drowsy. He looked hungry,” said the niece.

He was moved around twice more, all to substandard facilities.

“It was trauma. My mom got sick,” she said.

The family was lucky enough to be informed by the social worker every time the uncle was moved, so they knew he was alive, knew, at least, where he was.

They watched the Life Esidimeni arbitration on TV and decided to lodge their compensation claim after Moseneke announced his award. They followed up with the provincial government every month but received little response. The niece said communication from the government was the key problem.

The families recently met with the Gauteng government, which promised to pay the new claimants by 10 December.

Makhura wasn’t available to meet the marchers on Monday, but provincial government spokesperson Thabo Masebe said there had been challenges verifying the identities and relationships between claimants and Life Esidimeni patients.

He said multiple family members or friends had tried to claim compensation on behalf of the patients and claimants needed to obtain letters of authority from the Office of the Master of the High Court, which claimants said they were only told recently.

“This is important because there are cases where different people have been claiming to have legal standing to receive and be paid compensation,” Masebe was quoted as saying while committing to paying valid compensation claims.

But the lack of communication has frustrated claimants.

“I’m not sure of what the issues are: they don’t care, or there isn’t enough money, or they have other pressing issues?” asked the patient’s niece.

The challenges extend beyond compensation. Tshepo Lepule has been trying to help after his 27-year-old nephew came home from Life Esidimeni in the 2016 Christmas holidays and on return was told the facility was closing.

He hasn’t made a compensation claim but has been frantically trying to get his nephew, who’s currently staying with his sister, into a facility. He has approached the media for help but hasn’t yet gone to the provincial health department.

In a recent interview, Gauteng chief executive for forensic services Dr Medupe Modisane said 21 Life Esidimeni patients are still missing and, incredibly, people are still receiving social grants for four of those missing but they are yet to be tracked down.

The DA’s Jack Bloom recently said of the 2,287 unidentified bodies in the province's mortuary’s: “It is tragic that many families do not know the fate of their loved ones because they have been buried anonymously after suffering a violent death.

“I suspect that some of the 21 missing Life Esidimeni patients suffered this fate because they died and were not identified at a mortuary.”

ANC communications subcommittee chair Zizi Kodwa on Monday promised marchers they would get a response from the provincial government this week.

“We don't want anything that will remind the families or the nation what happened at Esidimeni because the road that we have traversed so far is about bringing a closure to that pain,” said Kodwa.

The march, however, is a clear sign that the pain continues. Former health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, considered one of the architects behind the deadly plan, still sits on the ANC’s provincial executive committee, and according to Bloom, it’s unclear whether the health professions that were meant to be sanctioned have faced disciplinary hearings.

The ANC provincial government will continue to promote itself ahead of the 2019 elections, but the families of the 144 Life Esidimeni dead and the many more affected won’t forget the tragedy or the delays in providing compensation. DM