Some relatives didn't care about Esidimeni patients

15 February 2018 - 13:20
By Reader Letter
Families of psychiatric patients, who died after they were moved to  illegal NGOs,sing outside  the Life Esidimeni arbitration hearings in Parktown.
Image: Thulani Mbele Families of psychiatric patients, who died after they were moved to illegal NGOs,sing outside the Life Esidimeni arbitration hearings in Parktown.

In reply to your SMS published on Monday Mr B, I agree with you that Life Esidimeni arbitration chairman, retired judge Dikgang Moseneke, did not take all facts into consideration when he made his ruling - such as the revelations on Carte Blanche (M-Net) and Checkpoint (eNCA) early last year.

In the programmes, a well-to-do lady appeared distraught over the death of her relative. However, she only started "missing" her mentally ill relative after nine months! Why didn't she think about the relative for all those months?

This is hypocrisy. Most families simply dumped their patients at Life Esidimeni and did not care about them.

They only cared about their social grants. Most relatives were only shedding crocodile tears at the hearing.

Theo Roelofsz, Marble Hall, Limpopo