Security at all Gauteng public hospitals will be reviewed, the province’s health department said on Tuesday, after the alleged rape of a terminally ill elderly woman in her hospital bed in a gynaecological ward at the Pretoria Academic hospital.
The 65-year-old patient’s subsequent death was probably more to blame on her illness — ovarian cancer — than the attack, allegedly by a 30-year-old Mozambican man, the department said.
”We are distressed and outraged by this incident and, after the management of the hospital toured this and other wards yesterday, they put into place a plan to intensify security throughout the hospital, especially at night,” said Gauteng health minister Gwen Ramakgopa.
Expressing ”shock and regret” at the incident, Ramakgopa conveyed her sympathy to the woman’s family. She is confident her assailant will be appropriately punished.
The man — arrested by guards and handed over to the police after being caught fleeing from the scene of the crime — is expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Departmental spokesperson Popo Maja said it is difficult to guard the perimeter of the hospital because of its layout and size — with more than 40 entrances and exits.
Until now, only the guarded main entrances of the emergency units and maternity hospital have been left unlocked after 7pm, and security staff have done foot, car and bicycle patrols.
These will be intensified and a security sweep implemented at 8.30pm, after the evening visiting hour, to help clear visitors out. Anyone without a staff identity card and a credible explanation for their presence will be escorted off the premises.
Maja said hospital management is also revamping a security campaign involving the reporting of strangers and any suspicious or unusual occurrences on the premises.
The department remains convinced that although an attempt was made to rape the woman, she had not been raped.
It is consulting her family about conducting a post-mortem to establish the cause of her death, he said.
Nurses on duty in her ward and a counsellor from the Medico-Legal Crisis Centre have indicated that she told them she was not penetrated.
In addition, a gynaecologist who examined her immediately after the incident reported no signs of penetration and no genital or extra-genital injuries.
”The cause of death is most probably due to her original illness, as she was very ill when this unfortunate incident happened,” said Maja. — Sapa