60% of Life Esidimeni patients were not dischargeable, says ex-nursing manager

JOHANNESBURG - The High Court in Pretoria on Friday heard that 60% of the mental healthcare users admitted to Life Esidimeni facilities were not dischargeable.

Former nursing manager at Life Esidimeni Zanele Buthelezi has been testifying at the inquest into the deaths of 144 psychiatric patients who were moved to illegal NGOs by the Gauteng Department of Health in 2016.

Buthelezi had been a nurse at the Waverly Care Centre for 20 years.

In her statement, read by evidence leader Advocate Mari Marriott, Buthelezi said more than half of the patients at Life Esidimeni facilities were not suitable to be moved to NGOs.

“We pointed out to them that specific [mental healthcare patients] were prone to relapsing and were thus not suited to be placed in an NGO. They needed a structured environment. The [patients] were just not dischargeable at all and not withstanding our remonstrations they were discharged.”