THE testimony of Ethel Ncube at the Life Esidimeni Inquest has been slammed by grieving families.
Ethel is the owner of the Precious Angels NGO in Atteridgeville, Tshwane where 23 mental patients died.
Christine Nxumalo of the Life Esidimeni Family Committee said she didn’t feel sorry for Ethel.
Christine said she had been suffering from depression and anxiety since her sister Virginia Machpelah died.
Last week, when Ethel took to the stand she broke down a number of times during cross-examination.
Christine said: “Ethel didn’t care when my sister was crying.”
Virginia’s postmortem states that she was without water and food for weeks and had developed gangrene in both her feet.
Christine said Virginia was admitted to Life Esidimeni because of her mental state and not her physical state.
Christine’s family was one of the families who attempted to stop the Gauteng Department of Health from moving patients from the Life Esidimeni facilities.
She said the department’s officials, including former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and former head of mental health Dr Makgabo Manamela knew she was related to Virginia and she was described as “troublesome”.
“From the postmortem it is clear they had decided to kill my sister.
“My sister was murdered. I think my sister was punished because of me,” said Christine.
Virginia was moved from one NGO to another while her family spent weeks looking for her. When she was finally traced, she had already died.
Christine said: “Ethel still continues to lie and this has angered families. She left my sister without food and water. She took more patients without enough staff or a valid licence, because all that was on her mind was more money.”
Ethel testified she was allocated incorrect patients because she was licenced to cater for children with profound intellectual disabilities.
She said she did her level best to care for the patients. But she refused to answer some of the questions during her cross-examination, saying she was traumatised and wanted nothing to do with helping the community.
At the arbitration proceedings, Gauteng MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy said Precious Angels received R1 million from the Department of Health.
