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Life Esidimeni: Portraits of Lives Lost tells personal stories and calls for mental health reform
Daily Maverick (1 August 2024) Harriet Perlman and Mark Lewis’ upcoming book, Life Esidimeni: Portraits of Lives Lost, highlights the deep emotional impact on families and underscores the systemic failures that led to the deaths of 144 mental healthcare users.
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BHEKISISA | The hidden cost of speaking out about Life Esidimeni
Times Live (11 July 2024) As the number of deaths of former Life Esidimeni patients mounted, our fight became public, and things became crazy. I was called a traitor by several of my political associates.
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Life Esidimeni inquest draws to a close after two years of blame-shifting, finger-pointing
Daily Maverick (8 November 2023) The Life Esidimeni inquest to determine liability and cause of the horrific deaths of 141 mental healthcare users who were moved from the Life Esidimeni health facility to NGOs in 2016, concluded on 2 November.
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Life Esidimeni tragedy 7 years on: Section27's Sasha Stevenson
SABC News (26 October 2023) Listen to a update on the Life Esidimeni tragedy 7 years.
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Culpable homicide charges needed for Life Esidimeni deaths, says Section27
IOL News (14 November 2023) Public interest group Section27 will argue that culpable homicide charges should be brought against three senior officials when the Life Esidimeni inquest returns to court later this month.
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Life Esidimeni inquest draws to a close after two years of blame-shifting, finger-pointing.
Daily Maverick (08 November 2023) The Life Esidimeni inquest to determine liability and cause of the horrific deaths of 141 mental healthcare users who were moved from the Life Esidimeni health facility to NGOs in 2016, concluded on 2 November. Legal representatives of the officials and NGOs implicated in the tragedy presented oral arguments before the court, each shifting the blame to other officials and a lack of paper.
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Life Esidimeni Tragedy Inquest into deaths resumes
EnCA (27 October 2023) Section27 is arguing that three key figures, including the former Gauteng Health MEC, be charged with culpable homicide.
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Looking back on Life Esidimeni – ‘Mental health still comes last in healthcare’
Daily Maverick (30 March 2023) The 2016 Life Esidimeni tragedy was a watershed moment for mental healthcare. It should also have been a wake-up call. This article explores what is happening in mental healthcare in South Africa today.
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What has happened five years after Moseneke report on Life Esidimeni disaster
Daily Maverick (19 March 2023) Five years after Moseneke’s report on the Life Esidimeni disaster, families ‘are still fighting for truth and justice’. This Daily Maverick article explores what this waiting for justice has meant for them.’
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SIU recovers funds from NGOs linked to Life Esidimeni tragedy
A Business Day Newspaper article (06 DECEMBER 2022) mentions that San Michele Home, Dolphins Acre, Life Esidimeni, Hephzibah Home Care, and Ubuhle Benkosi Care Centre have signed acknowledgment of debt agreements.
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‘I’m the scapegoat’, says Gauteng health department’s Makgabo Manamela
A former director at Gauteng Mental Health claims she is being blamed by officials ‘trying to save their own skins’ over their role in the deaths of 144 patients at Life Esidimeni. The Daily Maverick Article (05 December 2022) continues to mention that the inquest, which aims to determine if anyone can be held criminally liable for the deaths, will resume in the Gauteng High Court on 30 January 2023.
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Manamela to continue testifying at Life Esidimeni Inquest
The former head of the Gauteng Mental Health Services Dr Mmakgabo Manamela will on Thursday continue to clarify her role in the 2016 mass relocation of the mentally-ill patients from Life Esidimeni. SABC News (1 December 2022) continue to mention that Manamela said that they occasionally received reports that patients had died during the relocation.
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Life Esidimeni — seven years of indignity and injustice
In this Daily Maverick (29 November 2022) article it states that it’s been seven years since the lives of the families of patients at Life Esidimeni mental health facilities took a turn for the worse when they discovered their loved ones were being severely neglected and mistreated, and in some cases, died as a result of this.
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Life Esidimeni: Makhura should account - family member of victim
EWN News (28 November 2022) reference that the inquest will determine if anyone should be held criminally liable for the death of over 140 psychiatric patients who were moved from the facility to ill-equipped non-governmental organisations.
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Life Esidimeni Inquest: Makgabo Manamela returns for cross-examination
Manamela is among the former top officials at the department accounting for the tragedy that claimed the lives of 144 mental health patients. EWN News (23 November 2022) remarks that Manamela told the court she didn't recognise parts of a report she is said to have submitted to the department about the project.
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LIFE ESIDIMENI INQUEST: Part 2- Recap on its progress and what to expect
After several setbacks and adjournments due to procedural concerns in 2021, the Inquest resumed on 17 January 2022. The Article by (Spotlight February 2022) continues to mention that It is hoped that the Inquest proceeds uninterrupted this year so that its findings can speedily be taken forward by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to form the basis for criminal charges against those involved in this tragedy.
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Esidemeni families still want justice!
Five years later, it still remains unclear whether there will be criminal prosecutions over the Life Esidimeni tragedy.
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Life Esidimeni inquest to start on Monday
Details of how 144 mentally ill patients died in the Life Esidimeni tragedy is due to unfold from Monday. The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, is next week beginning to hear the inquest proceedings to establish whether anyone should be held criminally liable for the deaths.
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Hope for closure
ESIDIMENI: Families say inquest is step closer Inquiry will establish whether anyone will be held criminally accountable.
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Life Esidimeni memorial website launched so that ‘we can never forget’ and ‘never let it happen again’
In memory of the 144 people who died in the Life Esidimeni tragedy, Section27 and the South African Anxiety and Depression Group have launched a memorial and advocacy website.
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Five years on, the pain of Life Esidimeni continues
Five years ago, 144 people died after they were moved from a mental health care facility to NGOs and community care. For family members, the suffering is not over.
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The Life Esidimeni tragedy: My long and unfinished journey to justice
For five hard and often merciless years, Christine Nxumalo has been one of the stalwarts of the family committee for people who died as a result of the closure of Life Esidimeni.
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Torture and death at Life Esidimeni: Justice still denied
In the arbitration award in the Life Esidimeni tragedy, former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke found that the vulnerable people evicted from the hospital had suffered severe ill-treatment and torture.
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‘Shine, Doctor, Shine!’ The Doctor who spoke truth to power during Life Esidimeni case
Dr Mvuyiso Talatala was one of the few doctors who stood by his patients before, during and after the Life Esidimeni crisis. Today he remains adamant about using his voice and expertise as a psychiatrist to help the most marginalised.
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Guest Editorial: Life Esidimeni tragedy must never happen again
Cassey Chambers - Six years later, many people wonder why we still talk about Life Esidimeni; people must be getting bored of us saying the same thing over and over again.
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Families look to July inquest to hold officials criminally accountable
Patients’ relatives hope the inquest will finally lead to criminal charges against those allegedly responsible.
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Life Esidimeni — an anatomy of neglect laid bare
(Shirley de Villiers) A newly launched memorial tells the haunting, harrowing tales of the state’s failure to care for its most vulnerable citizens
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Life Esidimeni tragedy to be told on newly launched website
The of the Life Esidimeni tragedy and the 144 people who died need to be told and not forgotten to change how mental illness is treated in South Africa.
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Life Esidimeni: Remembering the 144 dead mentally ill patients
The Life Esidimeni online memorial and advocacy project website was launched on Thursday 20 May to mark Mental Health Action Day and to keep the stories of the 144 mentally ill patients who died alive.
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The lives of the victims of Esidimeni are remembered
An online commemoration and advocacy project was launched yesterday to remember those who died in the Life Esidimeni saga and prevent a tragedy from happening again.
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Life Esidimeni portraits of memory: We must never forget
The portraits below are part of an online Memorial and Advocacy Project about Life Esidimeni to be launched on Thursday.
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“Never forget how they died”- Life Esidimeni online memorial launched
Health activists launched an online memorial and advocacy project on Thursday to keep alive the memory of the over 100 people with mental health problems who died due to the negligence of the Gauteng Department of Health, after they were removed from Life Esidimeni centres in 2016.
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Online platform in memory of Life Esidimeni 144
An online memorial has been launched in honour of the 144 mental health patients who lost their lives in the infamous 2016 Life Esidimeni relocation programme.
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Life Esidimeni victims remembered
An online memorial and advocacy project was launched yesterday to remember those who died in the Life Esidimeni saga and prevent a tragedy from happening again.
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The Life Esidimeni tragedy: My long and unfinished journey to justice
18 May 2021
For five hard and often merciless years, Christine Nxumalo has been one of the stalwarts of the family committee for people who died as a result of the closure of Life Esidimeni.
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Life Esidimeni portraits of memory: We must never forget
18 May 2021
The Life Esidimeni online Memorial and Advocacy Project goes live on Thursday, 20 May to mark Mental Health Action Day.
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Mind field: SA urgently needs a new mental health policy
17 May 2021
This is the first in a series of articles on mental health. Here the writers explain why, in May 2021, South Africa faces a serious mental health policy crisis.
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Life Esidimeni: Waiting for justice is an injustice
21 April 2021
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has announced a formal inquest hearing into the Life Esidimeni tragedy to begin on 19 July in the Pretoria high court.
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Five years on, the pain of Life Esidimeni continues
3 April 2021
Five years ago, 144 people died after they were moved from a mental health care facility to NGOs and community care. For family members, the suffering is not over.
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Whatever happened to the doctors & nurses involved in the #LifeEsidimeni tragedy
27 May 2019
The former Gauteng health department head who presided over the Life Esidimeni tragedy, Barney Selebano, will face HPCSA in an inquiry that may eventually cost him his medical license.
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SA ‘riddled with mental health issues — and we live in denial’
29 March 2019
The South African Human Rights Commission has released a report on the state of mental healthcare in South Africa.
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Mental health is neglected and under-prioritised in SA
28 March 2019
The SAHRC ordered the department of human settlements to finalise its special national housing programme for people with psychosocial & intellectual disabilities.
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#LifeEsidimeni: Why seemingly good people came to do very, very bad things
19 October 2017
At least 141 mental health patients. As officials take the stand as part of arbitration hearings, a disturbing thread runs through their testimonies.
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R1.69 milllion paid to suspended Esidimeni officials
15 August 2017
Two senior officials implicated in the transfers that led to the deaths of more than 100 Esidimeni patients have received R1.169 million while suspended on full pay.
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