The 10th of October Marks World Mental Health Day. As the world observed the day, the DA Team One South Africa Spokesperson on Basic Services and MPL Makashule Gana visited the Kimberley Mental Health Hospital where he says the Northern Cape’s psychological patients have been ‘failed by an uncaring provincial government.’
“The lack of psychiatric facilities in the Northern Cape was so severe, that up until recently, state patients were awaiting hospital placement in prison because the provincial health department had too few beds in existing hospitals.” As it stands millions of people continue to suffer from various mental health illnesses. The Kimberley Mental hospital which was supposed to be operational years ago has since not admitted a single patient since construction started in 2006.
“The Kimberley Mental Health Hospital was first conceptualized in 2003 and was meant to be completed in 2008 at a cost of just under R900 million. However, one decade later and R2 billion later the facility’s doors of what would a state-of-the-art facility remain shut. The hospital, which is now a white elephant, is indicative of the broken promises,” said Gana. The party says it reported the provincial health department to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in 2014 to investigate the conditions of state patients in prisons. Gana says the SAHRC found that mentally ill patients were exposed to ‘degrading and humiliating’ conditions. “The Kimberley Mental Health Hospital will forever be remembered as a monument to corruption in the Northern Cape. The failing ANC continues to put the selfish interests of the politically connected above the needs of vulnerable psychiatric patients,” concluded Gana.
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