THE North West department of health has been ordered to reinstate a male nurse and pay him nearly R1 million after he was fired for allegedly raping a mental health patient twice while in hospital.
Machecha Zacharia Mathithibala was fired in May 2022 and was also unsuccessful in his internal appeal in August last year.
Mathithibala was fired for sexual assault from Bophelong Hospital in Mahikeng and he sought the intervention of the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council (PHSDSBC).
The patient was observed by a psychiatrist to be suffering from bipolar and manipulative behaviour.
The North West department of health must pay almost R580 000 and reinstate a male nurse it fired after a mental health patient accused him of raping her twice while in hospital.
According to a ruling by PHSDSBC commissioner Mzondi Molapo, the woman showed signs of extreme happiness and extreme sadness but was very functional in general.
A witness, who is an operational manager at the hospital, told the bargaining council that the patient said it was rare to have rape cases reported at the facility and that Mathithibala had worked with other female patients without adverse reports of a sexual nature.
The patient informed that operational manager that she slept with Mathithibala at night despite being under police guard after being drugged, woken up and undressed.
Another witness told the PHSDSBC that Mathithibala administered a higher dose to the patient with the intention to rape her and the alleged victim’s version was more probable that the male nurse’s.
The patient also claimed that she was offered money by the male nurse.
Mathithibala denied that there was any sexual intercourse between him and the alleged victim.
Mathithibala explained to the bargaining council that he gave the patient a higher dose for fear of her behaviour getting out of hand.
He also maintained that there were police around the area where the alleged rape occurred.
Mathithibala testified that it would have been impossible for him to have any sexual encounter with the alleged victim as patients locked their rooms at night and that the decision to dismiss him broke him emotionally and psychologically.
He insisted that his relationship with the alleged victim was strictly that of nurse-patient.
According to Mathithibala, the patient asked for cigarettes or snuff from him and other staff members.
’It was submitted that the respondent primarily relied on hearsay evidence and failed to call the person whose credibility the probative value of such evidence depended upon,” reads Molapo’s ruling handed down last month.
He found that Mathithibala has been unemployed since 2022 and that his dismissal was substantively unfair and described the evidence of the two witnesses remained uncorroborated hearsay.
”The respondent failed on a balance of probabilities to prove the fairness of the applicant’s dismissal,” stated the ruling.
Molapo ordered the department to reinstate Mathithibala on the same conditions as they applied prior to August 2022 and that he must resume his normal duties on July 25 and be paid his salary for 22 months, which is about R980 000, plus interest by the end of last month.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za