The case of Nthabeleng Precious Ramashala, the woman arrested for posing as a medical doctor at the Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital, has been postponed to next week to allow police to verify her residential address.
Ramashala, 37, made a brief second court appearance at the Tembisa magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
She is facing charges of contravention of the Health Act (impersonating a medical doctor) and for being in possession of presumed stolen property.
The presumed stolen property is the stethoscope that she had on when she was arrested. It was dangling around her neck at the hospital last month on June 18.
Investigations complete, but address not found
During the court proceedings, state prosecutor Maxwell Randima gave the case update to the court. He told magistrate Mmule Phatshwane that bail investigations are complete. However, police still need to verify Ramashala’s residential address.
During Ramashala’s first court appearance last month on June 21, the matter was postponed. This was for police to conduct bail investigations and verify Ramashala’s residential address.
Phatshwane postponed the matter to July 9 for police to verify Ramashala’s residential address.
Ramashala, who is represented by Legal Aid SA, remains in police custody.
Gave false address
According to the charge sheet submitted to court by police, Ramashala gave a Hillbrown residential address. She gave Unit 702 at a Hillbrow block of flats in Johannebsurg as her residential address.
However, security guards and tenants there told Sunday World they had never heard of her and that she did not live there.
Also, while she gave her address as a 7th-floor unit, security guards confirmed the building only goes up to six floors. This means Ramashala may have misled the police about her residential address.
The Gauteng department of health said Ramashala was nabbed in a ward at the hospital. She was doing the rounds with a stethoscope dangling around her neck.
Nurses who spotted her and saw nothing doctoral about her demeanour, raised the alarm.
Gauteng police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo said: “The police were called to the scene. And preliminary investigation revealed that she was a bogus doctor. The suspect was arrested and charged with impersonating a medical practitioner.”
Suspect was patient at ward where she was nabbed
Gauteng health department spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said Ramashala was a patient at the same hospital. A preliminary report from the department revealed that she was admitted as a patient from May 23 to 28. She was a patient at the very ward where she was arrested.
Questions also remain about how Ramashala evaded security, gained access or what she was planning to do in the ward.
