DURBAN – KZN Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo has slammed a macabre hoax Facebook message that alleges an ambulance was hijacked and its patients including an eight-month pregnant woman were injected with a substance and then decapitated.
The hoax, which was written in Zulu and has since gone viral claims that an ambulance carrying eight passengers from Port Shepstone was hijacked.
It further claimed that the paramedics were injected with an unknown substance; had their feet and hands tied and their mouths gagged. It then says the patients had their inside parts gouged including the baby in the womb of the pregnant patients.
Dhlomo described the widely circulated hoax as "macabre, misleading, mischievous and plain sickening".
Dhlomo said no such incident took place and that all its Emergency Medical Services personnel including its vehicles are well accounted for.
The police have also refuted the incident.
"Fake news is something else but this is sickening; worrisome and very macabre – it actually borders on dangerous voodoo practices," Dhlomo said.
"At best, I think the person who posted this disturbing message requires urgent help. Clinically speaking, people who harbour such ghoulish thoughts are actually a danger to themselves and to others in their midst. We also wish to appeal to the public to be wary of the evil and senseless intentions of information peddlers and scare-mongers whose only wish is to mislead people and sow feelings of terror and mischief. Only trust information if it is from well-recognised and established sources of news,” Dhlomo said.