Former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu has been suspended from the Global Banking School in the U.K. owing to the allegations she faces surrounding the Life Esidimeni deaths, News24 reported.
Mahlangu was health MEC when the Gauteng department of health decided to end a contract with Life Esidimeni to take care of mentally ill patients, and sent them to unlicensed nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), many of whom were not equipped to care for the patients.
Arbitration hearings are currently underway to determine compensation for the families of at least 141 known deaths of patients at NGOs, while 59 patients remain unaccounted for. Mahlangu resigned in the wake of the tragedy.
On Tuesday, The Times reported that Mahlangu was studying for her second MBA at the university. Mahlangu's attorney, Angelo Christophorou, confirmed this to The Times, adding that Mahlangu was a full-time student who was also doing a course at the London School of Business and Finance.
News24 established that Mahlangu was studying at the Global Banking School, which is attached to the University of Bedfordshire.
A spokesperson for the university reportedly told News24: "Given the severity of the allegations, Ms Mahlangu has been suspended from her studies at the Global Banking School on a without-prejudice basis in light of information relating to a tribunal in South Africa."
Former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke has vowed that the arbitration hearings would not end before Mahlangu and suspended director of the mental health review board, Dr Makgabo Manamela, and the suspended head of department, Dr Tiego Selebano, have appeared.
"Let me make it clear, these proceedings will not end until those witnesses... come before this hearing. If they are not here, all three of them, these hearings won't end," he reportedly said.
The ANC in Gauteng previously said it granted Mahlangu leave to study abroad and said Mahlangu would come back to testify in the hearings.