Student nurse kidnapped, raped after leaving Cape Town hospital

A 21-year-old student nurse at a Cape Town hospital was kidnapped while leaving her workplace and raped in the bushes near a local court, Western Cape police confirmed on Friday.

The woman was snatched on Tuesday while exiting through the pedestrian gate of Tygerberg Hospital in Parow, police said.

She was taken into the bushes next to Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s Court, where she was raped.

Nomawethu Sbukwana, spokesperson for health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo, said the student was in her first year and was sexually assaulted by unknown men.

“The student was released and received medical treatment at Karl Bremer Hospital’s Thuthuzela Care Centre, with counselling afforded as well,” Sbukwana said.

Mbombo visited the student on Thursday and condemned the “brutal attack”.

Professor Karien Jooste of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) expressed her “deepest concern about the safety of women in our country” on behalf of CPUT’s department of nursing science.

“We as the nursing department, are deeply touched and affected by the incident that happened to an innocent student. She is a precious individual who serves the well-being of the community and she needs the respect she deserves from others,” Jooste said.

“The department has visited her and will be a partner in walking the healing path with her.”

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