Missing patient found dead near Tonga Hospital
She was reported missing from her hospital bed on Tuesday, May 13.
A 51-year-old woman who went missing from Tonga Hospital has been found dead near the hospital’s sewerage area.
Judith Tinana Ntimane was last seen on Tuesday, May 13, at around 10:00. She had been admitted to the hospital on May 2 and was reportedly still wearing her hospital gown when she disappeared.
Hospital staff, security and police immediately launched a search, checking all the wards and surrounding areas, but they could not find her.
On Wednesday, May 21, at around 12:00, Ntimane’s body was discovered during a debushing project started the previous day by the police and the community policing forum. The bushes near the hospital’s sewerage area were being cleared when her decomposed body was found. All relevant authorities were called to the scene.
Her sister later confirmed her identity.
According to provincial police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jabu Ndubane, the circumstances around her death will be part of the ongoing investigation.
The acting provincial police commissioner, Major General Dr Zeph Mkhwanazi, offered his condolences to the family and praised the teamwork that led to the discovery.
This is not the first time a patient has died outside a hospital in Mpumalanga.
In July 2024, the body of Lazarus Mathabele (57) was found outside Matikwane Hospital in Mkhuhlu, where he had been admitted the previous month.
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Early on the morning of July 24, members of the community on their way to work found his body behind the hospital. He was also wearing a hospital gown. Nurses arrived and allegedly tried to move the body back into the hospital to make it appear he had died inside the ward.
To this day, his family has received no explanation as to how he left his bed and ended up dead outside the premises. Neither hospital staff nor security could account for what happened.
His widow, Filizard Mathebula, said the family was deeply shocked and left without answers. Their son Jabulani said Mathabele, a farmworker in Hazyview, was the family’s breadwinner and is survived by his wife and seven children.
