Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu’s lawyer‚ Angelo Christophorou‚ said on Tuesday he cannot confirm media reports that his client has been suspended from her university abroad.

“We are taking instructions from our client‚” he said.

The Citizen reported that Mahlangu was studying at the Global Banking School not the University of Bedfordshire but that the University of Bedfordshire was the awarding body for her Masters of Business Administration degree at the Global Banking School.

The Citizen reported that given the severity of allegations‚ a University of Bedfordshire spokesman told the newspaper in an email that: “Ms Mahlangu has been suspended from her studies at the Global Banking School on a without prejudice basis in the light of information to a tribunal in South Africa“.

Christophorou said the only knowledge he had was that she was studying at the University of Bedfordshire and he was investigating allegations of her suspension.

In arbitration hearings‚ Mahlangu has been fingered as the person who led the decision to close down Life Esidimeni homes and move severely ill patients into NGOs‚ despite repeated warnings by psychiatrists‚ families‚ civil society not to so.

At least 118 mentally-ill people died by February this year in circumstances that the arbitration hearings heard were linked to a lack of food‚ water‚ blankets and medical care.