Fake nurse roams hospital for months

Moloko Moloto

Dumisani Nukery, 20, arrested for theft and pretending to be a nurse at Mankweng hospital. Picture: Moloko Moloto

She masqueraded as a nurse for months without raising anyone’s suspicions.

It was only after the alleged theft of a nurse’s jacket that a Limpopo woman, Dumisani Nukery, 20, was arrested at Mankweng Hospital.

She was wearing a nurse’s uniform during her arrest, and police caught her red-handed with the stolen jacket still in her possession.

According to officials at the hospital, the woman had been roaming the corridors of the hospital since April.

Patients have had their shoes, cellphones and money stolen, officials at Mankweng Hospital said.

“She has been operating for a very long time,” said an official, who requested not to be named.

“Last Tuesday, she stole a jacket from one of the nurses, and that was when we nabbed her,” the official said.

This has raised concern about the state of security at hospitals.

“When things such as this happen, you wonder if our patients and we, as health professionals, are safe,” said an official.

Nukery appeared in the Mankweng Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday and was charged for impersonating a nurse.

According to sources close to the investigation, Nukery claimed that she had trained for a pre-nursing certificate at a nursing college in Mpumalanga.

It emerged in court on Wednesday that she had a pending case of theft against her.

Mankweng police spokesman Constable Moses Molepo said this other case related to the theft of a nurse’s jersey.

Molepo said Nukery comes from Nobody village, outside Mankweng, east of Polokwane.

Yesterday, the court postponed her latest case to July 23 for further investigations.

Nukery was granted R500 bail.

Health Department spokesman Phuti Seloba said Nukery had been apprehended by department security officials and handed over to the police. “People with kleptomaniac (tendencies) will not last,” Seloba said.

The Star