The Wits medical student who was raped at the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital has laid a charge against her alleged assailant, police said on Friday.
Superintendent Thembi Nkwashu said the student gave a statement to the police late on Thursday afternoon and laid a charge of rape.
The student said she was accosted on Monday by two men and raped by one of them, said Nkwashu.
The incident apparently happened outside a blood bank in a secure area of the hospital. The girl had gone to the blood bank to complete an errand.
A protest march against unsafe conditions for staff at the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg on Friday afternoon.
A doctor, who asked not to be named, said the march was in response to the rape of the student.
Protesters would be marching from the Glen Thomas outpatients’ building to the administration building at 12.45pm.
The protesters planned to hand over a memorandum to the CEO of the hospital, Arthur Manning, and a representative of the provincial minister of health’s office, the Baragwanath doctor said.
Statements would be made by an intern, a registrar, a nursing representative and a radiographer.
The doctor said protest posters had been distributed in the hospital asking for ”safety to work, safety to learn”.
Hospital staff had organised the march because they were dissatisfied with the safety measures at their workplace.
”We want the hospital to immediately effect effective security in the hospital,” said the doctor.
”We won’t accept this is a South African phenomenon. We are working in a hospital, we are not in a public domain.”
The doctor said staff did not want to hear finances used as an excuse for not exacting safety measures. Staff would be happy to be involved in sorting out problems at the hospital.
Assistant director of communications and public relations at Baragwanath Hester van den Heever said the hospital had already begun tightening security measures.
She said more lights had been installed outside and in the corridors, and access control measures and security patrols increased.
Management was also busy considering broader and more long-term security measures, said Van den Heever.
Van den Heever also confirmed the resignation of Dr Moses Balabyeki.
On Friday, 702 Eyewitness News reported that Balabyeki, a Baragwanath senior lecturer, was resigning after disputes over the safety of students following this week’s rape.
702 Eyewitness News said Balabyeki had reported being threatened and insulted by his boss after telling his students not to return to the hospital facility if they did not feel safe.
Van den Heever said the information she had was that Balabyeki had been given a written warning for unprofessional conduct about a matter unrelated to the aftermath of the rape.
He had then chosen to resign, she said.
Attempts by the South African Press Association to get hold of Balabyeki were unsuccessful. — Sapa