Durban - The CEO of The Peabody Trust, the housing association responsible for the block of flats where Sheila Seleoane lived, says they are going to ensure that there is never a repeat of what happened to Seleoane.
"Sheila Seleoane had lain dead undiscovered in her flat for two years. We are all devastated by what has happened. Quite rightly everyone wants answers and so do we. No one should have been left like this, it is heart-breaking and we understand the anger and frustration," Ian McDermott said.
"We’re looking at every single contact and visit we made to understand what went wrong and what we, as a landlord, could and should do to make sure this doesn’t happen again," he added.
Seleoane’s lonely death has gripped the world after international news agencies broke the news of how her body was found in 2022 despite having died in 2019. When London police finally broke into her apartment, they found Seleoane’s remains on a sofa.
Her cause of death is yet to be made known, however, an inquest has been set up. An independent report into how Seleoane, who never married and had no children, was left to lay dead in her flat for two-and-a-half years will also be published.
McDermott said the Trust had followed up with neighbours following their concerns and tried to make contact.
"After we were told by the police that everything was fine, we didn’t assume the worst. Clearly looking back the red flags were there. It should have been obvious to us that Sheila had either abandoned the property or something was very wrong. Even with the challenges of lockdowns we should have done better. I don’t think it was because we didn’t care. But something, or a number of things, have gone wrong," he said.
McDermott said the Trust needed to learn from Seleoane's death.
"We know that’s not good enough and we need to learn from this. Until we’ve completed the investigation we don’t have the answers. For us the investigation must focus on what we did, what we were told, and to really listen to the neighbours about what they told us and the authorities. We believe it’s really important that we learn from this across our organisation and have a clear set of actions. As the new CEO of Peabody, I will personally ensure that we put every single one of these actions in place," he said.
Seleoane’s remains were repatriated to the Eastern Cape where she was buried.
IOL