Virginia Machpelah RIP
In September, when Christine Nxumalo was finally told of her sister’s death, she went to a private funeral home. Her sister, Virginia Machpelah, was one of more than 1,000 patients (although specific numbers are still questionable) of almost 2,000 transferred out of Life Esidimeni to 122 NGOs after the provincial health department ended its long-term relationship with the healthcare provider.
Nxumalo’s sister had been sent to Precious Angels in Atteridgeville and when she went to the funeral home she was told there were seven other bodies there from the NGO. Sources say 35 patients were transferred to Precious Angels, meaning just under a quarter of its new patients might have died at its facilities.
Last night, Christine watched Checkpoint on local etv TV channel. She wrote afterwards on social media: I was taken back to the day I got the call from Ethel aka Nompumelelo from #PreciousAngelsNGO. How we had to search for it and was never allowed to see where my sister took her last breath... pretty much like ous Elizabeth's story.At least ous Elizabeth got to see Ethel aka Nompumelelo, I never met her. We only spoke on the phone. I couldn't handle her evasiveness and decided to open a case at Attridgeville Police Station and that's how I managed to get a post-mortem done...thanks to Section27 team. According to her, my sister died of natural causes, but when we requested the proof of the post-mortem... she started avoiding us. For 4 days, we chased after her not even the Captain at the police station could get her to come & give her version of what was happening.Tragic and traumatizing experience... it feels unreal and so inhumane. No one should have to go through this, no one
.I have a few questions directed at the police, which I need answered:
1. Why does she not report the deaths of the people in her care?
2. Why is she not taking them to a government mortuary, instead of Put U 2 Rest, which is privately owned?
3. Why is she not being questioned about the dates, when these patients died because she also lied. She also lied to us?
4. Should she not be arrested and/or questioned?"
Precious Angels was only registered as a non-profit in June, as patients from Esidimeni were being transferred to NGOs. Ethel Ncube, registered as the contact for Precious Angels, who also called Nxumalo a week after the fatality to notify her of her sister’s death,. “The operator of Precious Angels, Ethel Ncube, reported to Nxumalo that Virginia died whilst undergoing ‘stimulation therapy’.
Christine recalled receiving an SMS on June 30 informing her that her 50-year-old sister, Virginia Machpelah, was being transferred to a care facility run by an NGO in Cullinan outside Pretoria that day.
A few weeks later, on August 25, Nxumalo received a call from another NGO, Precious Angels in Atteridgeville, informing her of Machpelah’s death. She was surprised, as she had thought her sister was in Cullinan.
She later learnt from a patient report completed by paramedics, who declared her sister dead, that she had actually died nine days before, on August 17.
The cause of Machpelah’s death is still unknown.
On the 25 September it was reported that eight of the patients transferred to Precious Angles died after the move.Speaking to the City Press, an attorney for Section27, Umunyana Rugege, said a concerned family member of one of the missing patients on Thursday alerted them of the fact that the NGO has been cleared out without warning.“The family of one of the 35 patients let us know on Thursday that the place was totally abandoned when they arrived there to visit their family member,” said Rugege.“According to neighbours [of the NGO], residents were moved at night. We’re not sure how. We located many of them at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, where they were "dropped" off.
