Fatally stabbed in hospital
Family blames lack of security after relative, 85, attacked by 17-year-old
THE FAMILY of an 85-year-old Soweto man brutally stabbed in a medical ward has blamed poor security at the Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital for his death.
Grieving family members of Kholisile Edwin Zazayokwe, who was allegedly repeatedly stabbed on Friday by a 17-year-old Soweto boy, have described the hospital as “negligent and careless”.
Zazayokwe was stabbed in his upper body with a sharp object, allegedly by the teenager, who is set to undergo criminal and psychological assessments after he appeared in the Protea Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
He faces charges of murder and attempted murder after he also attacked a 75-year-old patient, who was still in hospital with injuries.
The family lambasted the hospital, saying they were not getting the answers they deserve around the death. They had given the hospital’s chief executive, Ruth Mabyana, until 3pm yesterday to shed light on how their loved one died.
“It’s infuriating that they’ve not seen fit to come back to us and tell us what exactly happened to my grandfather. A lot of things don’t make sense,” said Thabo Zazayokwe, who was the last family member to see the deceased alive on Thursday.
The family questioned why the hospital, which has no psychiatric facilities, took in the teenager and let him stay in a medical ward, knowing that he had a history of mental illness.
“They knew he was mentally unstable, but they kept him in a ward with elderly patients. The nurses even let him carry the sharp object. They need to tell us why this boy was still in the hospital ward, when he had already been discharged,” said Thabo.
The teen allegedly attacked the pair of elderly men just a day after he allegedly slapped them in the medical ward, which had 25 patients and was staffed by two general nurses, while nothing was done about the incident.
“The fact that there was an incident the previous day meant they should have been more alert,” he said.
Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) general secretary Rich Sicina said this was the sixth incident where a psychiatric patient attacked someone at the Soweto hospital.
“We want that woman (Mabyana) to be replaced with immediate effect. She knows the hospital does not have a dedicated psychiatric ward, but they keep taking in mental patients. The teenager was supposed to stay in a psychiatric facility and be observed for 72 hours, but they decided to mix him in with other patients,” Sicina said.
The hospital was mismanaging psychiatric patients, he said.
“They had 25 patients, two professional nurses who are general nurses without any expertise to deal with a psychiatric patient,” he pointed out.
A nurse at the hospital, Sicina said, revealed that other cases involving psychiatric patients had gone unreported because they were not as brutal.
Zazayokwe, who would have turned 86 next month, was admitted on April 7 with high blood pressure.
“I was the last family member to see him on Thursday. He was in high spirits as usual. We feel let down by the hospital and we are not the first to experience this. These people are negligent.”
The hospital is not new to controversy after being in the spotlight following the deaths of patients who were not being monitored. The Bheki Mlangeni Hospital was in 2018 also at the centre of a jobs-for-cash hiring scandal.
When contacted for comment, Mabyana refused to shed light on the incident.
“It’s being investigated by the police, there’s nothing that I can say. I have a team as we speak and they’re looking into that. There’s nothing to say at this stage,” she said.
Under Mabyana, there has been 136 disciplinary actions against employees in the past three years, and six staff members are facing disciplinary charges – five for irregular appointments and one for theft at the hospital.
Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana said the teenager was diagnosed with a new onset of psychosis.
“He was admitted in the medical ward to clear any other medical conditions,” Kekana said.
According to National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane the teen was being kept in a place of safety until his next court appearance on Monday.
“The matter was remanded for a psychological and criminal capacity assessment,” Mjonondwane said.
Last year, the Department of Health in Gauteng said 35 health-care facilities were classified as crime hot spots. At the time, the department and the SAPS said they were collaborating to develop a plan of getting quick responses to incidents in public health-care facilities.
This was after a nurse at Pholosong Hospital in Ekurhuleni was throttled by a patient until she became unconscious.