Tembisa hospital open to public after shooting incident

The Gauteng department of health in Gauteng has advised that the Tembisa hospital is now open to the public after its temporal closure following a fatal shooting incident on Wednesday morning.

The hospital was forced to shut down temporarily after a police officer allegedly murdered his nursing assistant girlfriend in the parking lot and turned the gun on himself but survived.

The department said that the incident had left “both patients and staff members traumatised”.

“Given the tragic incident, Tembisa Hospital had to divert calls to nearby facilities to allow the police to work on the scene of the incident and for the debriefing and counselling of both staff, patients and the deceased colleague’s
family,” said the department’s Motalatale Modiba.

According to the Independent Investigative Directorate (Ipid), a 31-year-old police constable attached to Ekurhuleni Cluster Tracing Team went to the hospital where his girlfriend of the same age was working as a nurse.

“On his arrival he called his girlfriend to come out at the parking lot,” said Ipid’s Grace Langa.

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“The girlfriend went out and they started having argument. While having an argument, the Constable took out a fire arm and started shooting at her after which he turned a gun to himself.”

Accrding to Langa, the woman was shot about seven times on the head and neck.

“The girlfriend was certified dead on the scene by paramedics. Constable police officer was airlifted to Milpark Hospital with a bullet wound on his cheek and he is on a stable condition. A case of Murder was opened at Tembisa Saps.”