The DA has asked the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) to investigate the theft of a 100m long copper pipe from the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberley – this after the Northern Cape Health Department failed to open a criminal charge of theft.
In a statement published in Polity, Isak Fritz, DA Northern Cape provincial spokesperson on health, wrote that the theft took place more than five months ago, with parts of the province’s only tertiary facility still without hot water as a result.
Based on a parliamentary reply, he wrote, it is suspected that the thieves pretended to be contractors and cut the pipe into pieces, to remove it as rubble. The incident was reported to provincial security, who met with facility management, and it remains under internal investigation.
The statement notes that the pipe was in a restricted area, for which the key is reportedly kept in the workshop to ensure proper control.
Fritz wrote that this points to serious security and access control breaches, and potential insider involvement.
It is therefore incomprehensible why the department has chosen not to involve law enforcement in this matter, unless it is wilfully protecting certain individuals or contractors, he said.
The plundering of copper pipe, at a busy tertiary hospital in an area protected under lock and key, at a facility protected by security guards, is a massive red flag, and must be treated as a priority, Fritz noted, and the DA has reported the incident to the SIU, with a request that it be urgently investigated.
Polity article – DA reports hospital copper theft to SIU (Open access)
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Cable theft affects three Kimberley hospitals
Cable theft rife at state hospitals because of security failures
Northern Cape’s only tertiary hospital in crisis, says DA