Life Esidimeni families deserve justice now

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) knows that justice delayed is justice denied.

It’s also aware that ensuring justice does not begin by prosecuting implicated parties in wrongdoing nor does it end with the guilty verdict of the perpetrator. The road to justice is often a long and a tedious process filled with emotions and anxiety. It therefore demands that those seized with this weighty responsibility go beyond just aiming to secure a conviction.

The Life Esidimeni case becomes relevant in this regard. The families of Virginia Machpelah, Deborah Phehla, Frans Dekker, Charity Ratsotso, Koketso Mogoerane, Terrence Chaba, Daniel Josiah, Matlakala Motsoahae, and Lucky Maseko are understandably running out of patience as they wait to hear the outcome of the NPA decision.

It’s been three months since Judge Mmonoa Teffo found that former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and former head of Gauteng’s mental health services Dr Makgabo Manamela caused these deaths, which were among the 144 deaths resulting from the Life Esidimeni disaster.

Aggrieved by lack of communication, the families marched to NPA offices in Gauteng armed with a memorandum of demands, which at the core, requests the NPA to provide them with regular updates regarding the progress in this matter. They should not have reached this point if the NPA truly took this matter seriously.

Three months is a long time for these families not to have been given a word by the prosecution authority about the way forward. Having waited years to secure the positive outcome of the inquiry into the deaths of their loved one, these families are now having to suffer another long wait for justice.

Whoever is responsible for this should be made to account. The damning report against Mahlangu and Manamela cannot be treated like another tick box exercise by the NPA while the lives of the most vulnerable in our society were cut short. We join the families in demanding that this matter is dealt with expeditiously.

If not for the grieving families, the NPA owes it to the mental health patients who could not speak up for themselves.

Cape Times