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Health activists launched an online memorial and advocacy project on Thursday to keep alive the memory of the over 100 people with mental health problems who died due to the negligence of the Gauteng Department of Health after they were removed from Life Esidimeni centres in 2016.
Bereaved family members joined the launch with SECTION27, the South African Human Rights Commission, and the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG).
The online platform offers links to helplines and counselling services which offer referrals, information and support.
“We also want to empower people, whether it’s patients or family members, on how to report complaints or to report mental health issues, which is one of the biggest lessons to come out of Life Esidimeni,” said Cassey Chambers from SADAG. “We can work together towards fixing our mental health system and prevent another Life Esidimeni tragedy from happening again.”
An inquest into the Life Esidimeni tragedy will start in July
20 May 2021
Five years after the Life Esidimeni tragedy, when 144 people died under disturbing circumstances, families of the victims are still angry, in despair and traumatised by how their loved ones died while in the care of government funded facilities. (Photo by Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Five years after the Life Esidimeni tragedy, when 144 people died under disturbing circumstances, families of the victims are still angry, in despair and traumatised by how their loved ones died while in the care of government funded facilities.
On 19 July, a formal inquest into the disaster will start in the high court in Pretoria, before Judge Mmonoa Teffo.
The inquest into the deaths of 144 mental healthcare users who were moved out of Life Esidimeni by the Gauteng government in 2015 and 2016 will begin in the North Gauteng high court on 19 July 2021, the NPA announced on Monday.
Relatives of the patients hope the inquest, which will determine causes of death, will finally lead to criminal prosecutions.
No one has been criminally charged for the deaths despite former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke’s arbitration award finding that the Gauteng health department’s decision to move the patients stemmed “from the arrogant and irrational use of public power”.
Witnesses at the arbitration testified that patients were sent to under-resourced and ill-equipped NGOs that lacked the ability to provide basic care or, in some cases, even feed the mental healthcare users.