Slaying highlights hospital safety

Durban28022013 One of the entrances to King Edward Hospital .Picture:Marilyn Bernard

Durban28022013 One of the entrances to King Edward Hospital .Picture:Marilyn Bernard

Published Mar 6, 2013

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Durban - The hunt is still on for the man who shot King Edward VIII Hospital’s labour relations officer last Thursday. A nurse at the hospital said the man was also looking to shoot someone else.

A memorial service for Sipho Mfayela, 54, who was fatally shot by a hospital employee, is scheduled for tomorrow at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine.

According to some hospital staff, the man is believed to have been called in to Mfayela’s office in the human resources department, to collect his letter of dismissal.

Police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane said the man was still on the run.

The hospital’s public relations officer, Nontobeko Mdlela, said Mfayela had worked at the hospital for 23 years and was well-known to staff.

“He was a quiet man, very friendly and very humble. Over the years he had worked in the paediatrics outpatients department, medical records and finance before moving to the human resources department. He worked in labour relations for the past seven years,” she said.

Mfayela is survived by his wife and two children. Mdlela said Mfayela was close to his children, who often visited him at work. His family declined to comment.

A nurse at King Edward who knew Mfayela, but did not want to be named, said an innocent man had been killed as he was just a messenger.

She added that he had not made the decision to fire the employee.

She said the employee was suspended and was called in last Thursday to collect his letter of dismissal.

Last Thursday morning a colleague ran into her office saying there was an incident at the Human Resources Department.

“When I ran into the office I found Sipho on the floor and doctors and nurses were trying to revive him.

“He had an office in the corner of the department which he shared with a female colleague. They were both in the office when the employee came in,” she said.

“The employee didn’t want to accept the letter of dismissal and said he would return with the shop steward (union representative). It is believed he went out to his car and took out a gun and went back to the HR office and shot Sipho.

“The female colleague was screaming and tried to get out the office, but was in such a state that she couldn’t open the door.”

The nurse said the employee worked in the hospital workshop and was apparently suspended for stealing equipment and products from the hospital.

“He ran out of the office and then went straight to the equipment room, apparently with the intention of shooting someone else, who, it turned out, was off that day. He walked into the office and pointed the gun and then left the hospital,” she said.

The nurse said this was the first shooting at the hospital.

“This is such a terrible and sad situation. We lost a very good man who was very hard working and knew his job well. He was always very polite and friendly.”

The nurse said both government and private security was employed at the hospital. The private security company guards, she said, were deployed at the gates to the hospital.

“Staff are searched when we leave the hospital, but are not searched when we enter.

“Our cars are searched and sometimes our handbags. Everyone needs to be searched when they enter or exit. We do have identification cards, but security never check and some staff don’t even wear their identification tags.”

Martin le Roux, a manager at Kekana Protection Services – the private security company employed at the hospital for nine years before being replaced in 2011 – said protocol, at that time, was for HR to contact them a day before a person was going to be dismissed.

“An HR officer would be accompanied by security to the employee who was going to be fired to give them their letter of dismissal, because you never know how a person is going to react. If the individual was suspended and had to come in to collect their letter, we would either accompany them to the HR office, or have them wait for an HR officer to present them with the letter,” Le Roux explained.

Kevin Mabanga, the director of LK Security Solutions – the private security company that currently works at the hospital – said they were conducting an internal investigation into the shooting.

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