Members of the EFF's Gauteng Provincial Legislature yesterday laid 94 charges of murder against the province's Premier and former Health MEC. A News24 report notes that a day after Premier David Makhura announced that 94 mentally ill patients had died after they were moved from the licensed Life Esidimeni healthcare facility to 27 unlicensed NGO’s, the provincial EFF's leadership said he should face criminal charges.

The party was at the Johannesburg Central Police Station, saying Makhura and the former Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, who resigned on Tuesday, were culpable for the deaths of the patients. The EFF said its MPLs would also be laying charges against the 27 NGOs and anyone else implicated in the killing of the 94 patients. The ANC Youth League was also expected to lay charges. As reported in Legalbrief Today yesterday, the families of those who died are also considering legal action in the form of a class action suit.

Full News24 report

An attorney believes Mahlangu should be held criminally liable for the deaths, says a report in The Mercury. Section27 attorney Sasha Stevenson said that there appears from the ombuds’ report to be grounds for criminal charges against the MEC. In her resignation letter, Mahlangu said ‘the Health Ombudsman has not found any culpability on my part for the unfortunate loss of lives by the patients’. But Stevenson said there was ‘an obligation on the SAPS and prosecuting authority to pursue (these criminal charges). We cannot say what the chances are of her facing jail time without knowing the commitment of these bodies to pursue the investigations and prosecution’.

Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)

Meanwhile, an investigation of human rights violations is under way. The right to life, access to healthcare, the right to dignity, the right to freedom and security of the person, access to information and proper consultation probes have already been initiated, notes a Cape Times report. Additionally, cruel and inhumane care, and allegations that patients had died of hunger and dehydration, were also being looked into. The NGO only had a licence to care for children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities, but patients with different needs and mental problems had been sent there. The Ombudsman's report stated that the head of department, Dr Ephraim Selebano, admitted that they should have done a proper fit-for-purpose assessment.

Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)

Selebano is still employed despite his ‘fingerprints being peppered throughout’ the transfer of more than 1 000 psychiatric patients to unlicensed NGOs, says a Business Day report. A Gauteng government spokesperson confirmed that Selebano remained an employee of the province, but said the DG in Premier David Makhura’s office, Phindile Baleni, ‘had initiated a process in terms of labour law’ to ensure Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba’s recommendations were implemented. He said the Gauteng government and the national Department of Health – along with affected families – had set up a committee to help co-ordinate efforts to move the remaining patients to more suitable facilities in a bid to meet the 45-day deadline set by the Office of the Health Ombudsman.

Full Business Day report (subscription needed)