Polokwane hospital shooting: gunman’s family wants to give back to the community
The family of the 46-year-old deceased Thohoyandou businessman, Thizwilonde Mochatau, the gunman who recently died at the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital, wants to establish a trust fund in his honour.
POLOKWANE – The family, who say they’re struggling to cope with his death, say as a dialysis patient Mochatau was frustrated at having to travel so far for treatment due to a lack of facilities in Thohoyandou.
Read more: Patient shoots nurse, turns gun on himself at Pietersburg Provincial Hospital
“He would always complain about the travelling and the level of service at the hospital.”
They say the trust will be used to establish an institution to perform dialysis.
Motshatau arrived at the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital on 23 August via planned patient transport as a transfer patient from the Tshilidzini Hospital.
Upon arrival he followed a male nurse into the changing room where he took out a firearm and subsequently fired shots at the nurse before turning the gun on himself.
Thizwionde was certified dead on the scene.
Phumudzo Mochatau, brother of the deceased says the family is not coping with the death as they never expected such an act from him.
Thizwilonde was laid to rest in Thohoyandou on 31 August.
Mochatau said they wish to raise funds for the construction of dialysis facilities in the Thohoyandou area to prevent such an incident from happening again.
“We do not want his death to be in vain, this is how we want him to be honoured.”
Chairperson of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), Lesiba Monyaki says the union is concerned with the security breach at the hospital after they had made numerous calls over the security of nurses in the workplace. “Luckily the nurse who is one of our own is recovering well.”
He says they have had several meetings with the Health Department to increase security at the hospital although the department is shifting the blame saying the renal dialysis ward where the incident happened is privately owned.
“We have however managed to organise security at the ward as there had not been one stationed there before the incident.”
He says there had been visible progress in terms of security measures after the incident.
