Takalani Home in Soweto is a home for children and adults with learning disabilities. During the Life Esidimeni move, dozens of psychiatric patients were transferred there. All photographs by Robin Hammond/Witness Change. Featured Image
[dropcap]In[/dropcap] September 2016, Phumzile Motshegwa received a call from an unknown number. The woman on the end of the line said Motshegwa’s brother, Solly, was dead. His body was at a funeral parlour in Atteridgeville, a township in South Africa. Did she want to go and collect him? The address she gave was a disused butcher’s shop. When Motshegwa arrived, a man hosing down blood-stained floors handed her a pair of rubber gloves. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″]
“Do you know your brother?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Choose your brother, then.”
Phumzile Motshegwa’s 55-year-old brother, Solly Mashigo, died in August 2016 after being moved from Life Esidimeni. Image Credit, Robin Hammond/Witness Change.
Luleka Khunjwa’s 62-year-old sister, Maureen, died after being transferred to Takalani home in Soweto. Image Credit, Robin Hammond/Witness Change.
Reverend Joe Maboe’s 52-year-old schizophrenic son, Hendrick, died after being transferred from Life Esidimeni. Image Credit, Robin Hammond/Witness Change.
Susan Phoshoko was legal guardian to her 28-year-old nephew, Terance Chaba. He died after being transferred to the care home Precious Angels. Image Credit, Robin Hammond/Witness Change.Motshegwa put on the gloves. Before her stood metal tables stacked high with decomposing corpses. “I counted 36 bodies,” she says. “I was shifting all these ladies and guys around until I saw Solly. I saw his head, I saw his scar, so I said, ‘This is my brother.’”
Solly had lived in hospital since a 1989 machete attack during political clashes left him brain damaged. He had been happy and healthy, and recently celebrated his 54th birthday. Now his body lay in front of her, emaciated and mutilated.
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