A day after a King Edward VIII Hospital official was shot dead, a human resources manager at a Phoenix hospital had also received death threats.
|||Durban - A day after a King Edward VIII Hospital official was shot dead, allegedly by a fired employee, a human resources manager at a Phoenix hospital had also received death threats from an employee, it emerged yesterday.
The incident at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital was revealed at a memorial service for Sipho Mfayela, the King Edward staffer who was shot in his office last Thursday when he had called in an employee to collect his letter of dismissal.
Mfayela, 54, was a labour relations officer in the hospital’s human resources department. His killer is still at large.
Addressing the service at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine on Thursday, a provincial health labour relations official said it had become a “trend” for employees to threaten HR officers.
He said he was called in to Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Phoenix when its HR manager received threatening letters from an employee.
He said the offending letters were pushed under the manager’s office door.
Many of Mfayela’s colleagues spoke at the memorial service of their fond memories of him.
The common thread, however, was the issue of safety and security at hospitals.
Recalling the incident, King Edward’s CEO, Dr Hugh Gosnell, said doctors first tried to resuscitate Mfayela in his office before taking him to the theatre.
“The bullet pierced both chambers of the heart and blood vessels to the heart,” he said. There are no words to express the depth of the sadness we’ve experienced in the past week.”
Gosnell said the hospital was also reviewing its access control and other security systems.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health’s ombudsman, Mboneni Bhekiswayo, said the department was “shocked and embarrassed” by the incident.
“There are six core standards (at the department) and one of them is safety and security. This incident is calling for speedy action for security in hospitals.”
Bhekiswayo, who is a former King Edward CEO, said staff, visitors and patients needed to feel safe. “For now we are far from meeting that particular standard.”
He said he had worked with Mfayela for nine years. Mfayela had started work at the hospital almost 23 years ago as an administrative clerk.
Bhekiswayo also appealed to unions to teach their members about labour relations and to inform them that it was not an HR practitioner that fired an employee, but that it was the employee’s action that led to the firing.
The Daily News had previously reported from staff accounts that the alleged gunman was suspended, allegedly for stealing equipment and products from the hospital, and was called in last Thursday to collect his letter of dismissal.
A nurse, who did not want to be named, said the employee, who worked in the hospital workshop, refused to accept the letter and said he was going to return with a shop steward (union representative). It is alleged he went out to his car, fetched a gun, and went back to the HR office and shot Mfayela.
Police spokesman, Captain Thulani Zwane, said a warrant for the gunman’s arrest was issued on Tuesday.
Mtholephi Mthimkhulu, deputy speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, said yesterday he was appalled not only by the killing of his friend, but also that the gunman had not been arrested.
Mthimkhulu said he first met Mfayela at the University of Zululand where they had both studied.
“It’s been exactly a week and he (the killer) still hasn’t been apprehended,” Mthimkhulu said at the memorial service.
“We would feel consoled if the person was behind bars. I appeal to anyone who can assist with information that would help lead to an arrest.”
noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za
Daily News