Missing mental health patient’s family baffled by disappearance

The family of a mentally impaired Pretoria man who vanished from a care centre in Cullinan three weeks ago are slowly losing hope, conjuring up memories of the Life Esidimeni tragedy in which 144 patients died.

There is no place or hospital within the centre’s precinct and surroundings the family and community haven’t searched for Shane Jordaan, 30, with his sister Christan saying they were still baffled how a mentally impaired person vanishes from a government facility.

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The family would however not be drawn to allegations that living conditions at the centre were terrible and patients neglected, saying all they wanted was to find their brother they last saw over a year ago.

“He is my elder brother. We have been praying and looking at hospitals but there has been no sign of him or lead or any lead on his whereabouts. Last week we had a search party in Rayton where he went missing but nothing,” Christan said.

She said the family visited her brother, who was under the care of the Kairos Centre, a provincial government-funded psychiatric facility in Cullinan, Tshwane, three times a year, and last saw him just before the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in March last year.

“We are going into the 20th day that he has been missing now. I lost my sister in a car accident in 2016, now my brother is missing,” Christan said.

She said all was well with her brother and that there had been no problem they were aware of and the family distanced itself from the DA’s statement about alleged neglect.

The DA in Gauteng said Jordan’s disappearance had exposed problems at the centre, including lack of monitoring whether patients were taking medication and filthy rooms plagued with leaking raw sewerage.

“We were happy with his stay at the centre, there had been no problems before. We are just puzzled by how does a person with mental impairment disappears from a government facility,” Christan said.

In 2016, 144 patients died after being transferred from Life Esidimeni healthcare facilities to dodgy NGOs when the contract between the Gauteng government and the Life Esidimeni group lapsed.

The patients were taken from Life Esidimeni, which provided highly specialised chronic care to mental health patients, to NGOs that were not properly licensed, where they suffered gross depravity, cruelty and neglect.

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DA spokesperson for social development Bronwynn Engelbrecht said the health department had a responsibility to conduct regular monitoring and evaluation of all state-funded centres and to ensure vulnerable people were taken good care of.

“It is evident that they have failed miserably in this regard, with patients not being given the treatment and care they are entitled to. The disappearance immediately brings up memories of the Life Esidimeni tragedy,” she said.

The Gauteng department of health is yet to respond to the incident.

siphom@citizen.co.za