Note to Editors: Attached please find a soundbite in English by Dr Jack Bloom here.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng calls on Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to intervene to prevent another Esidimeni disaster as 176 mental health patients at the Talisman Foundation in south Johannesburg face imminent eviction. Their landlord has given them notice to leave by 14 May this year.
I met yesterday (21 April) with the Talisman Foundation to assess what can be done to assist their patients. I was accompanied by local DA councillors Michael Crighton and Rashieda Landis, as well as Ward Committee member Anna Mfaxa.
See photos here, here, here, and video here.
We were briefed by Foundation Chairperson Mr Jackie Tau and senior staff. They expressed concern that the Gauteng Health Department had interviewed patients without their staff present, and they have not been given full details of the NGOs to which patients are expected to be transferred.
It appears, however, that about 100 patients will be sent to the Clinix Solomon Stix Morewa Hospital and the Life Nkanyisa Waverley Care Centre. This makes little sense as these private hospitals are paid more than R16 000 per patient per month, whereas Talisman gets only a R4059 monthly subsidy per patient.
Instead of spending more than R10 million extra each year on private hospitals, this money could be used to rescue the Talisman Foundation by negotiating with their landlord, the Old Apostolic Church, to allow them to stay by paying increased rental. Their current rent is R182 000 a month, while the Church proposed an increase to R360 000 a month.
It is highly desirable that Talisman patients are kept together as many have lived there for years in pleasant surroundings and have formed close friendships. They are now anxious about their future in places without familiar faces.
The NGOs they will be sent to are inferior to their present circumstances and the private facilities are hospitals rather than a supportive suburban home environment. Another tragedy is that the 19 staff at Talisman will lose their jobs, and this worthy NGO with 47 years of dedicated care and experience will be forced to close.
Meanwhile, the Gauteng Health Department did not renew Talisman’s Service Level Agreement (SLA), which expired on 31 March this year, and has only extended it to 30 June 2026.
There is no way that 176 mentally fragile patients can be safely moved within such a short time frame. They attend different hospitals for treatment and have complex medication regimens. Talisman is requesting at least a year to make alternative arrangements.
I have written to Premier Lesufi to appoint a mediator urgently to facilitate an acceptable solution that averts a cruel outcome for vulnerable people.