News24.com | 'Senseless and callous murder': Anger, fear following killing of Gqeberha doctor at his surgery

Dr Bantu Noqekwa was murdered at his surgery.

• SA Medical Association expressed shock after the murder of Gqeberha-based Dr Bantu Noqekwa.
• The provincial health department has called on police to track down the killers. 
• A survey by SAMA revealed that medical staff were often at risk due to poor safety and security measures at work.

The South African Medical Association (SAMA) says the lives of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals are often at risk due to poor safety and security measures in hospitals, practices and clinics. 

This comes after 56-year-old Dr Bantu Noqekwa was shot dead at his surgery in Zwide, Gqeberha, in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday. 

Police said four men shot the doctor after entering his surgery on Wednesday evening.

SAMA said the brutal attack would leave a deep void in the provision of much needed quality medical services in Gqeberha.

Spokesperson Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa said they were once again deeply concerned about the safety of healthcare professionals in the workplace.

Mzukwa said: 

The attack comes a mere two weeks after a group of doctors were robbed of their cellphones, money and valuables during an armed robbery at Tshepong Hospital in Klerksdorp in the North West.

The doctors were busy with their regular briefings when four armed men entered the boardroom and pointed guns at them.

In March 2022, Dr George Koboka, 56, was shot at his practice in Diepkloof, Soweto. He was declared dead in hospital.  

A week before Koboka's killing, gunmen had stormed into his surgery and stolen his patients' cellphones.

According to SAMA, 20 of the cases involved medical doctors, 18 were paramedics, and seven were nurses. The association said most of the violence, 24 cases, occurred in state facilities at sites such as wards, staff quarters and parking lots.

Four attacks occurred in the private sector and three took place in doctors' surgeries.

The association said the attackers were mainly strangers followed by patients and patients' relatives.

SAMA appealed to law enforcement agencies to act swiftly in dealing with crime and to ensure the safety of both patients and healthcare providers.

"SAMA recommends developing and implementing a multi-sectorial strategy for the security of healthcare workers to protect them from targeted crime.

"Without this intervention, healthcare in itself continues to be further jeopardised, and more doctors will feel threatened and seek safer refuge in foreign countries, taking with them critical skills and expertise that are in dire need locally," he said.

Eastern Cape Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth said the health sector was poorer as a result of the "senseless and callous murder" of Noqekwa.

She said the murder had robbed the Eastern Cape of a fine general practitioner.

"He was a source of healing to those he served."

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Meth said the department had also learned of a robbery at another's doctor's surgery in Njoli township, also in Gqeberha.

"We are comforted that his life was spared, though we can empathise with the trauma associated with such an experience," she said.

"We are calling on the police to leave no stone unturned in bringing the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to book."

The MEC urged that the senseless attacks on healthcare workers in the province should come to an end.