The Eastern Cape Health Department has fired an employee at Port Elizabeth’s Livingstone Hospital who was caught on video drunk at work.
Health Department spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo, said Pumlani Dekile was an administration clerk at the hospital.
A vigilant patient who went to the hospital in the early hours of the morning in April took the video of Dekile taking swigs from a bottle of liquor and seemingly unable to stand properly.
Kupelo said that “the move to fire him shows that the department will not sit back and do nothing against officials who bring the department into disrepute.”
Meanwhile, in a separate development, Kupelo said that the CEO of the Cala Hospital, Lulamile Sizelo, was suspended on Wednesday.
This, after apparently feeding patients food that did not meet the Department’s food policy standards.
“The poor patient diet was a disgrace and should have never be allowed to happen in the first place,” Kupelo said.
He also said that two supervisors at the Mthatha forensic facility have been issued with letters of intention to suspend them, following allegations that they had misused a state vehicle over the weekend.
Kupelo said that they were given three days to explain why they should not be suspended.
He added that the Mthatha forensic facility is also facing an investigation following the disappearance of a body that was admitted for an autopsy in January this year.
