Lawyers have taken up the cudgels in the case of a young Limpopo mother who says doctors removed her womb during childbirth without her knowledge or consent, leaving her in pain and struggling to come to terms with what happened, reports Health-e News.
Dimakatso Madimabe* (20) says she was eight months pregnant when she went for a routine check-up at Bothashoek Clinic on 14 August 2024.
Nurses became concerned about her high blood pressure and referred her to Dilokong Hospital, which then classified her as high risk and transferred her to St Rita’s District Regional Hospital in Glen Cowie, about 120km from her home.
She was put on a drip and taken to theatre, where, she says, she was “attended and treated by inexperienced student doctors doing their experiential learning”.
According to Madimabe* she signed no documents giving consent for surgery, but her baby was delivered via C-section.
“I did not sign any papers giving consent to be assisted to give birth by Caesarean operation,” she told Health-e News.
Later, she overheard nurses and doctors “discussing how they erroneously removed my womb”.
She stayed in hospital for seven days before she was discharged.
Wound infection
At home, she could not sleep because of the pain. She said a family doctor who later treated her wound told the family her womb had been removed and advised them to consider legal action.
The doctor also gave her antibiotics for an infection, and when the wound did not heal properly, she had to return for follow-up treatment.
Her parents told Health-e News they believe their daughter’s future was changed without her consent. They had later approached the hospital to demand answers, and when no clear explanation was given, they instructed Mashabela Attorneys, a Limpopo law firm, to pursue the matter against the Limpopo Health Department.
Madimabe* says she did not receive psychosocial counselling from the hospital after the operation, but later received counselling in private care.
Limpopo Department of Health spokesperson Neil Shikwambane said the department could not comment on the matter because it involves the family’s legal team and the department, and that it was being investigated. St Rita’s Regional Hospital management would also not comment on the case.
Wider pattern of illegal sterilisation
Madimabe’s* account comes as legal groups and oversight bodies continue to raise alarm about obstetric violence and non-consensual sterilisation in South Africa.
In February 2026, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at Wits University joined 11 other organisations, including the Sexual Reproductive Justice Coalition, the Women’s Legal Centre and SECTION27, in backing a memorandum to the Health Department calling for an end to obstetric violence and forced sterilisation.
They called for mandatory training for maternity staff on informed consent, contraception and sterilisation.
In 2023, the Commission for Gender Equality called the National Department of Health to account for the lack of progress in implementing recommendations after its investigation into complaints lodged by advocacy group, the Her Rights Initiative, in 2020 on the forced sterilisation of HIV-positive black women.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Call for justice after forced sterilisations
MPs demand action after forced sterilisations on HIV+ women
HPCSA investigation into forced sterilisations ‘ongoing’
Commission’s report implicates the State in forced sterilisation of HIV+ women