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The Gauteng district attorney said it was “a sad situation” that there were still unresolved compensation problems for the Life Esidimeni victims and their families.
DA MEC shadow for health Jack Bloom said the prime minister’s office had revealed on Thursday that only R6.5m of the R120m budgeted for compensation to Life Esidimeni victims and their families have been paid so far this year .
In March 2018, retired Supreme Court Vice President Dikgang Moseneke ordered the government to pay damages to the families of deceased mental health service users.
In 2016, 144 patients died after being transferred from Life Esidmineni’s healthcare facilities to NGOs following the termination of the contract between Gauteng and the hospital group.
Life Esidimeni provided highly specialized chronic care to some 2,000 mental health patients.
Some of these NGOs were not properly licensed and lacked the necessary facilities to adequately care for patients.
In the submission to the Gauteng legislature’s oversight committee on the prime minister’s office and the legislature, the prime minister’s office also revealed that 81 of the 352 claimants had not received any payment.
Bloom said that, according to the prime minister’s office, the underutilization was due to closure restrictions that resulted in delays in the verification process for claimants.
“451 claims were received, of which 352 were verified, but 81 of these claimants have not yet been paid,” said Bloom.
The director general of the Gauteng prime minister’s office, Phindile Baleni, informed the committee that the remainder of the 120 million rand budget will be spent in December and January, when the court master establishes a trust fund to manage 50% of the assigned payment. for patients.
The remaining 50% is expected to be paid directly to the accounts of the patients’ relatives.
“A complicating factor is that aggrieved family members will go to court next week to make sure their own attorneys administer the trust, as they distrust the attorneys to be appointed by the provincial government.
“It is a sad situation that there are still unresolved compensation issues in this tragic matter where so many people suffered due to government negligence,” said Bloom.
TimesLIVE
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