Johannesburg - Fighting to hold back her tears, Sandra de Villiers holds a pink tissue in her hands and says her disabled brother was starved and later died of dehydration in a hospital in Pretoria.
Jaco Stols was one of more than 90 mentally ill patients who died after they were moved around to new homes after the state ended its contract with four Life Esidimeni Hospitals in Gauteng.
De Villiers told News24 on Tuesday that her brother, Stols, 53, had been disabled since birth.
She said she noticed her brother was not receiving the treatment he needed at the Cullinan Rehabilitation Centre.

"He had a blue eye and had a wound to his head. I reported the incident, but no one could give us an answer. I found out that he didn’t even have clothes anymore, he was just sleeping on his mattress," de Villiers said.
De Villiers said the doctor told her that her brother was suffering from dehydration, negligence and starvation.
"At the Cullinan Rehab Centre it felt like those people are locked up like animals in a cage," she claimed. "They never responded very well to my questions about my brother. It felt like they were hiding something.”
A few weeks later, Stols was taken to a hospital in Mamelodi, but there was nothing doctors could do for him.
He died on October 14, 2016 of dehydration and starvation

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/life-esidimeni-deaths-disabled-people-are-not-animals-20170912

I wonder why disabled people are not taken as human beings in our country. It's so sad to see a person die in a hospital because of hunger and hydration. I think disabled should be treated specially so they can see themselves as others.