BEFORE THE blood of an assistant nurse dried up in the parking lot of Tembisa Hospital, her colleagues led her body, in the mortuary van, out of the hospital gates, singing “a seed has fallen”.
Lebo Monene, 30, was allegedly gunned down by her partner, a police officer, in the hospital’s parking lot on Wednesday morning.
The man, who arrived in a car with police blue lights, shot the woman before turning the gun on himself.
He was airlifted to Milpark Hospital, and is in a critical condition.
“We are traumatised and don’t feel safe. If a police officer can do something like this, nobody is safe in this hospital, so we are wondering who is going to be next. People can just enter here with a gun. We are nurses, we are people who save lives,” said Hahani Lebisi.
According to eyewitnesses, the man and the woman had an argument before the man fired the shots.
Another nurse, who did not want to be named, said it was not the fault of the security guards.
“We think we are safe when we are here at work, but we are no longer safe at all. The security did their job, it’s just that police have access to come to the hospital with their guns. We can’t blame the security because he took advantage,” said the woman.
Simphiwe Gada, the provincial chair of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), said they were shocked by the incident.
“We are angry, but also shocked… and sad that we lost such a young life,” Gada said.
“Our prayer is that the perpetrator, we must do everything to save his life. He mustn’t get the easy way out. He must come back and face the consequences. This also tells us that the issue of gender-based violence is deep in our country,” he said.
