KwaZulu-Natal health MEC slams fake news about decapitated patients

25 May 2017 - 17:30 By Suthentira Govender
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Ambulance emergency accident file photo
Ambulance emergency accident file photo
Image: iStock

Macabre‚ misleading and plain sickening is how KwaZulu-Natal’s health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo described a fake Facebook post‚ which claimed an ambulance had been hijacked and its passengers murdered for their body parts.

The post‚ which is written in IsiZulu and has gone viral‚ claimed an ambulance transporting an eight-month pregnant woman and two other female patients from Murchison Hospital on the south coast to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban‚ was hijacked.

The post further stated that paramedics were injected with an unknown substance and were bound and gagged‚ while the patients had their organs removed. It also alleged that the unborn baby was removed from the mother’s womb.

Dhlomo denied that such an incident had taken place‚ adding that all emergency medical services personnel and vehicles had been accounted for.

“Fake news is something else but this is sickening‚ worrisome and very macabre - it actually borders on dangerous voodoo practices.

“At best‚ I think the person who posted this disturbing message requires urgent help‚” said Dhlomo.

He appealed to the public to be wary of “the evil intentions of information peddlers and scare-mongers whose only wish is to mislead people and sow feelings of terror and mischief.

“Only trust information if it is from well-recognised and established news sources‚” he added.

- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE

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