JOHANNESBURG – Legal representation of the former Gauteng MEC for health Qedani Mahlangu nhave told the Life Esidimeni hearings that she would be willing to come testify in January 2018.
The arbitration started just over an hour late on Friday as the MEC’s legal representatives met with the arbitration chair former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke and the legal representatives for Section 27, Legal Aid, Solidarity, the evidence leaders as well as the state.
The representatives of the MEC told the hearing that Mahlangu would only be available to testify inJanuary when she is expected to finish a module for her masters of business administration at the University of Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom.
The university said earlier this week that it had suspended Mahlangu over “the severity of the allegations” against her.
Her representatives, however, told the hearings earlier on Friday that it had regarded the suspension as unlawful and wrongful and they were planning to challenge it.
Qedani Mahlangu is a key witness, given that she signed off on the Esidimeni project which resulted in the death of over 100 mentally ill patients.
She and other Gauteng government officials moved the patients to ill-equipped NGOs where they died of hunger and starvation. Her representatives said that she would be available to testify between 22 and 26 January 2018.
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