Dr Barney Selebano, the former head of the Gauteng Department of Health, was cross-examined on Tuesday at the Life Esidimeni inquest by advocate Phyllis Vorster, the legal counsel for the families of four mental healthcare users who died while being transferred from Life Esidimeni to NGOs in 2016.  

During the Life Esidimeni arbitration in 2017, Selebano told the arbitrator, retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, that he took responsibility as head of the Gauteng Department of Health for what happened during the Life Esidimeni Marathon Project, in which more than 140 mental healthcare users died. 

This was despite him not being able to explain why he had ignored warnings from mental health professionals, such as the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, on the dangers of moving the patients from Life Esidimeni.

Questions on apology

Selebano, when questioned by Vorster at the inquest about his apology at the arbitration to the families of the mental healthcare users who died, responded:  “As a leader, you say these are people who were under my leadership. If anything goes wrong, I am with them. That is why I apologised to the families and will continue to apologise.

“Loss of life is not easy. It doesn’t matter how you want to see the losses of life or how you feel about it. That family is in pain, and it is ethical for a leader to apologise, to say, ‘I am sorry about this. I wish it didn’t happen.’ I still apologise today. It is a painful episode in my life.” 

During Vorster’s cross-examination, Selebano conceded that he had written the termination letter for the Life Esidimeni contract in 2015, a decision which he said was taken at the premier’s budget council.

“We were unable to pay monthly bills for Life Esidimeni; we were battling to pay them, but not only them,” declared Selebano.  

Licences signed

Judge Mmonoa Teffo asked Selebano if he had ever signed any licences for the NGOs where patients had been taken to during the Marathon Project.

He replied: “Yes, in September 2016, when patients had already been moved, I counter-signed with what [the former head of mental health at the Gauteng health department Dr Makgabo] Manamela had signed.”

“Why sign licences after patients [had been] moved?” asked Vorster.

Selebano answered that the licences had already been signed by Manamela. “I told the health ombudsman that these are not licences, they are certificates; there is nowhere in the act that says I must sign licences, but the ombudsman said the whole thing is illegal.”

Selebano said he “was not involved” in moving the patients.

“Before I went to Manamela, I went to the legal department, who said don’t sign, and Manamela said the same, but it was my decision and I signed and said that you must have the old licence attached.”

Selebano said he then wrote a memo saying he had signed after a discussion with the ombud, but on legal advice should not have signed. 

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At the time of the arbitration, representing the families of the deceased patients, advocate Adila Hassim asked Selebano: “Why would you regularise a licence for an NGO in which people were dying and that you yourself had to close down?”

“I regularised it,” answered Selebano. 

“It gave them a licence up to 2017, do you agree?” asked Hassim.  

“I agree. I regularised it.”   

“It was unlawful,” said Hassim, to which Selebano conceded that he should not have signed.

“Do you agree with me that this project failed?” asked Vorster.

“Once society is not happy, then it means it was a failure,” answered Selebano.

“Once you are a leader and this type of thing happens during your leadership it’s painful. You don’t want to be a leader who will be remembered for this.”

Vorster pushed him on what “this” is, to which he responded: “Patients passed away, that’s what happened.”

Manamela, who signed for the licences of the ill-equipped NGOs where the patients died, was due to testify last week. However, on the day she was meant to start her testimony she applied for an official postponement, saying she had not had enough time to prepare. After that application failed, she claimed she was ill, delaying the inquest further.

Manamela is due to testify at the inquest on Wednesday, 14 September. The judge has issued a warrant of arrest which will be activated should she not appear. DM/MC