Lilitha nurses at centre of bribery row

Officials accused of ‘back hands’ and fraud probe

THE Eastern Cape department of health has launched a fraud investigation after 10 unqualified nursing students were accepted and registered for a governmentfunded nursing course.

The health department claimed that the students were kicked out of nursing school in East London on Thursday, after nursing regulatory body the South African Nursing Council (SANC) discovered that they did not meet the minimum requirements to study nursing.

In an e-mailed response to our enquiry, the nursing council was in the dark about the matter.

SANC marketing and communications officer Adri van Eeden said: “The SANC is not aware of this situation and can only comment if we have more details available”.

Department of health officials who formed part of the selection committee that recruited the youths are under scrutiny for their actions.

The discovery was made almost three months into the first year of the four-year course.

The Eastern Cape health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the investigation will seek to uncover how the students were admitted when some did not have the compulsory life sciences/biology subjects, or scored six points below 18 points, which is the minimum required for admission. This comes as the Lilitha Nursing College which has campuses in East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha, Komani and Lusikisiki, is being dogged by bribery allegations.

The Dispatch was told by a senior official close to the matter that one of the 10 under-fire students had allegedly confessed to having paid a R2 500 bribe to secure a place.

Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said: “The matter has been referred to our internal fraud investigation office over possible fraudulent activities relating to recruitment of these students”.

The students are all based at the Eastern Cape government's Lilitha Nursing College at the Cecilia Makiwane campus site in Mdantsane.

The scandal sparked anger among a group of 27 lecturers from both campus sites who downed tools this week and refused to teach until all 10 students had left the campus.

The protesting lecturers are also calling for an immediate replacement of the selection committee.

A senior lecturer, who asked not to be named, said: “We feel insulted. This is the problem that is contributing to the high number of litigation cases against the department of health because we produce incompetent nurses.”

The campus has 300 students studying paediatric nursing, advanced midwifery, operating theatre and critical care.

The 10 form part of a group of 75 first-year students who enrolled in January for the four-year diploma in general nursing, psychiatry, community and midwifery.

The 10 students were getting a monthly stipend of R4 100 each from the department of health. —