Engo Chief Director, De Wet Claassen, tells OFM News the accused were dismissed with immediate effect following internal disciplinary proceedings. Things came to a head at this facility when CCTV footage emerged of the 55-year-old general worker, Nomakhosazana Cynthia Lebea, where she engaged in an altercation with the 79-year-old Elize Devenish over an extra tub of yoghurt. Devenish is seen falling to the ground in the video after being knocked off balance by Lebea and she is then left lying on the floor for more than five minutes, even being passed by a yet-to-be-identified nurse. The 79-year-old woman sustained varied injuries in the incident, including a fractured forearm. 

Claassen says both women have been informed of the outcome of the disciplinary proceedings. While Lebea will be back in court on June 20 on a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, the unnamed nurse has been reported to the South African Nursing Council and is currently under investigation there.

The incident again came under public scrutiny on Saturday when local biking club’s well-intentioned visit to the Engo family care home on Saturday took a negative turn. The manager for the home, Jannie Nothnagel, tells OFM News that a yet-to-be-named group of bikers went to the home to donate some food parcels to the elderly living there. The situation then took an ugly turn when the leader of the biker group gathered all the caregivers and began to address them. 

In a video provided to OFM News today, the man is heard noting his discontent regarding the incident in which a 79-year-old woman broke her left forearm in an altercation with a general worker over an extra tub of yoghurt. “I too have seen the footage and I think it’s shocking. I just want to make it clear to everybody that if it gets out again that someone in this institution is hurt, the next time we come back here, it’s not gonna be with clothes. You can take that any way you want to. It is what it is. Pushing around defenceless people is not the way it works.”

OFM News