Wounded Esigodini Gold Panners Take Nurses Hostage, Demand Treatment
Gold panners in Esigodini reportedly stormed a local clinic and locked up nurses, demanding to be treated of wounds sustained during gold wars. Umzingwane acting District medical Officer Dr Simbarashe Samanyatwe said the incident occurred two weeks ago. He said health personnel no longer feel safe
This makes the need for us to have security posts availed at our rural health facilities to assist in times like this. We are having a lot of violent cases recorded in Umzingwane District and because of that we have some individuals that are bringing their violence to rural health centres and some nurses are feeling unsafe… We receive a lot of murder cases using machetes, knives and axes, so our staff members are now raising concerns over their safety too. As recent as four weeks back at Esigodini we had a case where individuals stabbed each other just three metres from the entrance of the institution so those situations present a security challenge for our staff which is our major worry.
