A clinical examination was conducted on the boy “which found no evidence of sexual assault”.
Durban – The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health said that there was “no evidence” that a 12-year-old boy was sexually assaulted at Chatsworth’s RK Khan Hospital.
Responding to reports and outrage from the DA on the allegations, MEC, Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said in a statement that when the management of the hospital received the complaint, a clinical examination was conducted on the boy “which found no evidence of sexual assault”.
“Specimens have been taken from the boy, and sent for testing,” Simelane-Zulu said in a statement.
“An investigation has also been conducted by personnel from an in-house Thuthuzela Care Centre, in the presence of the SAPS. The decision on whether to register a rape case now rests with the investigating officer. The mother of the boy has also been counselled.
Rape is a serious and sensitive subject. The department is pleading with all parties to treat is as such, and not seek to mislead the public; cause unnecessary alarm; or attempt to gain political mileage from such unproven reports,” she said.
On Wednesday, it emerged that three mental patients allegedly sodomised a 12-year-old child at the hospital on Tuesday after they were all put in a general ward because of the lack of beds.
The DA said that their source told them that psychiatric and non-psychiatric patients are currently in mixed wards at RK Khan due to a shortage of both space and staff.
Dr Rishigen Viranna the DA spokesman on Health in KZN said: “If so, it flouts the strict regulations of the Health Professional Council of South Africa’s (HPCSA) and both the MEC and the hospital’s acting CEO must be held accountable for allowing such circumstances to occur at RK Khan Hospital. Our hospitals are supposed to be safe places. Yet in recent weeks, we have seen violent incidents at KwaMsane, Nkonjeni and now at RK Khan – and these are only the incidents that we know about”.
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