This statement was made amidst tension over the criminal investigation into an assault captured by CCTV cameras. The facility’s management met with the staff on Wednesday morning and afternoon to provide insight into the internal and criminal investigations launched into the 55-year-old female employee, Nomakhosazana Cynthia Lebea, and an unnamed nurse. The home was responding to allegations that a group of caregivers at Ons Tuiste were not happy with how management dealt with the assault and wanted to strike as a result.

According to the statement, the staff took note of the explanations in those meetings, especially the one regarding the criminal case and in the end, pitched for work. All this while Lebea made her first court appearance on Thursday (May 30) following her arrest the day prior. She was released on R1000 bail by Magistrate Piet Bester who then requested the matter to be transferred to a different courtroom. She will re-appear in court on June 20. The group confirms that internal disciplinary proceedings pertaining to the two suspended staffers have been finalised. Engo, however, informed the public they cannot divulge the hearing’s outcome to the public until the parties in question are informed first.

Accused in assault speaks out 

She first made news when CCTV footage emerged of her engaging in an altercation with an elderly woman living at a Bloemfontein old age home, that left the latter with a broken forearm as well as a hip injury. The 55-year-old female employee of Ons Tuiste Sentrum vir Bejaardes, Nomakhosazana Cynthia Lebea, says the published video does not reveal everything that transpired before the incident and she wants to tell her story. Speaking to OFM News on the steps at the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court shortly after her co-workers posted her R1000 bail, the upbeat Lebea says she has been complaining about the 79-year-old Elize Devenish to her superiors for two months to no avail.

According to Devenish’s son Charl, his mother had been living in this part of the home – where the incident occurred - for two months but had been a resident at the home in different sections for years prior. Lebea, who is a general worker at the facility, says she loves her job and has been working there officially for 14 years. “My final word on the matter that I’d like to share with management of the job that I love, I am not going to sleep in cells for nothing. I am going to take further steps.”

OFM News