Durban - KwaZulu-Natal police are on the hunt for a robbery syndicate believed to have stolen computers from a Camperdown clinic and primary school on Monday.
In the early hours of Monday morning, 14 computers, three television sets and a 4x4 bakkie were stolen from the Injabulo Clinic in Camperdown just outside Durban.
It is alleged that two men approached security guards at the clinic and told them that their Toyota Quantum had overheated.
While the guards were distracted, two men cut a hole in the fence at the back of the clinic and gained entry.
The guards were allegedly overpowered and their hands bound with cable ties. It is believed the guards were ordered to lie down on the floor while the men helped themselves to the goods, which they removed from the clinic's consulting area, reception and data capturing room.
The gang fled with the items including an official bakkie belonging to the department. The vehicle is used for community outreach programmes.
The guards were found hours later, by a resident who arrived early at the clinic. She managed to contact nursing staff who lived on the property.
The men were believed to have also robbed a local primary school of a number of computers just minutes earlier.
KZN Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, has condemned the seemingly well-orchestrated armed robbery.
Healthcare service delivery ground to the halt at the clinic for the whole of yesterday due to the incident, and is only expected to resume today.
We are completely taken aback, dismayed and disgusted by this incident. It is a crying shame. You just know that something has gone terribly wrong in society when a place that the community turns to for its healthcare needs, such as a clinic, is targeted and destroyed in such fashion," she said.
Calling the incidents "morally reprehensible", she called on residents to take ownershhip of their health facilities.
"They must squeeze out, isolate and expose all of these criminals who are holding us to ransom when we are trying to deliver much-needed healthcare services, because someone, somewhere knows them. We call on the police to do everything possible to bring these perpetrators to book," she said.
"Even during Apartheid, healthcare workers and the facilities where they worked were spared from harm. They were respected, but clearly not anymore," she said.
Police confirmed that a case of robbery is being investigated by Umsunduzi SAPS.