Mental Illness in the Dark – Again, Shocking Health Ombud Report in the Northern Cape
Mental Illness in the Dark – Again.
SADAG Responds to Shocking Health Ombud Report in the Northern Cape
The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) is deeply outraged and heartbroken following the release of the Health Ombud’s Special Investigative Report into psychiatric patient deaths and conditions in the Northern Cape. The findings echo a devastating pattern South Africa knows all too well.
Patients—many already vulnerable and voiceless—were subjected to conditions that can only be described as inhumane:
| ▪ | No electricity at the facility for over a year |
| ▪ | Severely understaffed wards, often run by student nurses without supervision |
| ▪ | Broken infrastructure including shattered windows and collapsed ceilings |
| ▪ | Inadequate or poor quality of basic essentials—beds, blankets, sheets, pyjamas |
| ▪ | No equipment or medication |
| ▪ | Rampant mismanagement, irresponsible spending on golf carts and furniture |
| ▪ | Zero accountability, oversight, or training |
| ▪ | And worst of all, patients died from hypothermia due to the cold |
“It is a sad day for Mental Health in South Africa—again,”
says Cassey Chambers, SADAG Operations Director.
“How is South Africa involved in another Mental Health Crisis again? It’s been eight years since the Life Esidimeni disaster where 144 patients died under similar appalling conditions. Now, once again, psychiatric patients have died because of poor care, inadequate staffing, and neglect. How is this still happening?”
The Health Ombud reported that the deaths were avoidable. These patients died from being too cold. They died in silence, in pain, in darkness—literally and figuratively. Families who entrusted the state with the care of their loved ones have now been forced to bury them under circumstances that should never have occurred.
What message does this send to others with Mental Illness who depend on the state for care? How can they trust a system that continues to fail them, again and again?
The failures documented in this report didn’t happen overnight. Electricity was off for months. Staffing shortages have existed for years. There were management teams, oversight committees, departmental visits, funding approvals—all of whom knew about the conditions. Yet nothing was done—until three lives were lost. How many more patients have been harmed in the meantime?
The parallels to Life Esidimeni are chilling. That tragedy prompted multiple investigations, including the Health Ombud’s first report, SAHRC’s Mental Health Report, and the Arbitration Hearing —all of which outlined urgent recommendations: establish national task teams, provincial oversight bodies, and detailed reporting structures to the Health Minister.
Yet here we are. More damning reports. More lives lost. More families left devastated. And the very same systems that promised never to let this happen again have let it happen again.
The lives lost in the Northern Cape were avoidable. They deserved dignity, care, and safety—not to die in freezing, broken facilities abandoned by those meant to protect them.
