This, as a 26-year-old pregnant mother in Madibogo in the North West, lost her twins after she gave birth prematurely outside a health facility on Tuesday night 17 August.

According to the provincial Health Department spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane, the young mother says she lost both her twins after staff members at the Madibogopan Clinic ignored her cries for help. He says according to the facility managers, the staff closed the clinic following a resolution from a staff meeting held on 25th August 2021. They received both written threats via social media, print media, and voice clips that the nurses in the clinic are useless. Lekgethwane adds in these messages there were threats to set the clinic on fire whilst the nurses were on duty.

Meanwhile, the acting provincial secretary of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) in the province, Kedibone Mdolo, declined to comment on the issue for now.

This as she and the MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha, are on Monday 6 September 2021 set to visit the family of the 26-year-old in Madibogo. Sambatha is also expected to brief the media on the outcome of his visits to the family.

“We are dealing with a case of a young woman who gave birth outside a health facility on 17 August 2021 at around 10 am. The professional nurses were called by groundsmen and a cleaner to tell them that there was a patient who needs help outside the facility. On arrival, they found this 26-year-old woman, who had already delivered a first premature twin. The woman was taken to the facility's labour ward with a wheelchair, where it was found that one twin [was stillborn] and the other one had already passed on. Resuscitation was conducted without any effect,” Lekgethwane adds.

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