The silent deaths of 94 mentally ill patients in South Africa is symptomatic of their place in society, but their families want explanations, writes the BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg. Virginia loved music. She had an infectious laughter. She loved her family. Even with Alzheimer’s, parts of her had not been lost. Her family still cannot believe she is gone. “She was murdered. That’s how we see it. Decisions were made by people who had no regard for my sister and any of the other families, in the end they killed them,” says Christine Nxumalo. Her sister, 50-year-old Virginia Machpelah was one of the 94 psychiatric patients who died following a move from facilities run by Life Esidimeni, a private healthcare company last year to various care homes in Gauteng province, around Johannesburg. Many were transferred without the knowledge of their families. About 1,900 patients were transferred to these centres after the Gauteng Health Department cancelled its contract with the private institution in 2015 to save costs. Christine Nxumalo: “She looked so thin – she wasn’t the Virginia I knew. She was in good spirits, she didn’t want us to leave – we spent hours laughing. She could even remember who we were.” The mass transfers were made between March and June last years, scores of deaths followed but they were not reported, not even to the families, according to an independent report. The department was paying for the patients’ upkeep – from medication to specialised therapies – because the…more detail
