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The families of the 94 psychiatric patients who lost their lives in the Life Esidimeni tragedy have launched a class action law suit against the health department.
And Solidarity Helping Hand has come on board to represent them.
“Due to the gross negligence of the department, the deceased suffered unnecessary pain,” Helping Hand, an arm of trade union Solidarity, said on Wednesday.
Department of health spokesperson Joe Maila told City Press that there was not much that they could say regarding the lawsuit but that they were following through with the recommendations in the health ombud’s report which was released last week.
“We have been in ongoing talks with the families in order to ensure that they get some form of closure and it is a process, but we are committed to honouring these recommendations,” Maila said.
Hurter and Spies, Helping Hand’s legal team, will be representing the families in what is expected to be a long and emotionally trying time for the families.
At a press briefing held in Centurion today, family members of the victims, Sandra de Villiers and Miriam Monyane, spoke about their ordeal and how they are fighting for justice to be served.
Helping Hand has launched a threefold strategy to address the tragedy, including applying for an interdict against the department of health.
Helping Hand will apply for a structural interdict to force the department to submit its plans to the court within 90 days, on a structured basis and under the court’s supervision, to ensure that a situation such as this does not recur.
The proposed interdict will also request that, within 90 days after the first court appearance, the state must submit to the court how these plans have been implemented.
Helping Hand would also ask the court to refer the case to the complaints lodged at the directorate of public prosecutions.
Dr Dirk Hermann, Solidarity Helping Hand’s board chairperson, said that the deaths were proof of the state’s failure towards its duties.
“The department of health’s failure to react to the numerous cries for help and warnings is testimony of blatant arrogance. The department has to be held responsible,” he said.
It has also surfaced that in July last year; the organisation’s lawyers had already brought an urgent application before the North Gauteng High Court on behalf of the Siyabadinga non-governmental organisation, a client of theirs.
“An application was made for the appointment of a curator to investigate alleged gross negligence and abuse of patients by staff of the department of health. Although the application before the court was urgent, a period of three weeks went by during which the case was referred from judge to judge no less than three times,” Helping Hand said.
Meanwhile, The South African Society of Psychiatrists has called for an urgent review and overhaul of the entire mental healthcare system in Gauteng.
The society’s president, Professor Bernard Janse van Rensburg, said immediate intervention was required.
“We are convinced that unless there is a particular and significant commitment by the political principals of the national and Gauteng departments of health to make the necessary resources and funds available now to restructure the system it will not be possible to address the extent of the current crisis.
“The current situation is a direct result of accumulating years of neglect, delay and failure to prioritise mental health care services in Gauteng as well as in other provinces.”
He says the dedicated teams must work closely with the specialist acute inpatient units in general referral hospitals, and all current specialist acute units on secondary or tertiary levels must be equipped to provide at least 40 acute beds allowing for voluntary and involuntary mental health care.
“Currently, the three acute psychiatric inpatient units on the Wits academic circuit operate under significant pressure due to incomplete and delayed renovations.
"In some cases, patients are currently nursed in areas intended for half such numbers, as a result of all the respective construction projects now already being disproportionately delayed for several years,” Van Rensburg said.
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