Former director of Gauteng mental health Dr Makgabo Manamela has accused Life Esidimeni of letting patients leave their facilities while they were in a bad physical state.
Manamela, who was represented by her lawyer Adv Russell Sibara at the Life Esidimeni Inquest on Tuesday, said the first batch of patients who went to Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital were not well.
“Patients who were discharged from Life Esidimeni were in a bad state... the first batch of patients received were not in a good condition,” said Sibara.
The inquest which is being held at the high court in Pretoria is set to determine if there will be any criminal responsibility in the deaths of 144 mental health patients that were moved to ill equipped NGOs. They died of various causes, including malnourishment.
Under cross examination, former managing director for Life Esidimeni, Dr Morgan Mkhatshwa, said he cannot comment on what happened to patients when they were en route to their new homes, but that they were well when they handed them over to officials from the department of health. He said he does not know the time difference between patients leaving their facilities and actually arriving at their new homes.
“I did not transport them. They were taken by officials... if there were concerns they should have spoken about them then and made notes at that time,” said Mkhatshwa.
Sibara also accused Mkhatshwa and Life Esidimeni of refusing to share medical records of patients.
“Dr Manamela wrote to you on the 3rd of June 2016 requesting reports of mental healthcare users,” said Sibara.
Mkhatshwa said there were no patients who left Life Esidimeni without medical records. He also said he gave the department full access to the medical records of patients.
“At no point did I get any complaint from Dr Manamela that there are issues with the transfer of documentation, I also offered to the department of health to say that they can come with resources [printing documents] and they did not come so I cannot take responsibility for that.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Manamela's lawyer told the court she would have been fired if she defied orders to move patients by former MEC for health Qedani Mahlangu.
“She had to implement the decision of the MEC... whether she likes it or not... she told you her hands are tied and that she had to follow instructions or go through the door,” said Sibara.
Mkhatshwa's cross examination will continue on Wednesday.
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