It never rains but pours for Nthabeleng Precious Ramashala, the woman who was arrested for posing as a medical doctor at the Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital.
Her aunt, just like her mother, does not want to live with her if she is granted bail.
This information was revealed on Tuesday when Ramashala, 37, made a brief fourth court appearance at the Tembisa magistrate’s court.
Ramashala is facing charges of contravention of the Health Act (impersonating a medical doctor). She is also charged with being in possession of presumed stolen property.
The presumed stolen property is the stethoscope that was dangling around her neck when she was arrested. The arrest was made at the hospital last month on June 18, as she was doing the rounds in the wards.
Aunt refused to let her stay at her house
During the court proceedings, state prosecutor Maxwell Randima told magistrate Mamokete Sihlangu that police visited Ramashala’s aunt. She (the aunt) said she did not want to live with her if she was granted bail.
Last week, Ramashala provided the court with her aunt’s residential address as the place she will stay if she is granted bail. In the same week, her mother told police that she does not want to live with Ramashala if she is granted bail.
In the last two weeks, Ramashala provided the court with her mother and aunt’s residential addresses. These were provided as places where she will stay if she is granted bail. Both her mother and aunt told the police they wanted nothing to do with her.
Randima told Sihlangu that Ramashala’s family is expected to have a family meeting on Friday to discuss her situation.
Sihlangu then postponed the matter to next week, July 24. This is to hear what Ramashala’s family would have decided regarding where she will stay if she is granted bail.
Ramashala remains in police custody. Her bail application has not yet begun.
Two of Ramashala’s family members who were present in court declined to comment when approached by Sunday World.
Gave bogus Hillbrow address
Meanwhile, according to the charge sheet, Ramashala gave her residential address as unit 702 at a Hillbrow block of flats. However, security guards and tenants there told Sunday World they have never heard of her. And that she doesn’t live there. Also, she gave her address as a seventh-floor unit. However, security guards confirmed the building only goes up to six floors. Meaning Ramashala may have misled the police about her residential address.
It is reported that Ramashala gained access to the hospital’s ward. There she introduced herself as a surgeon doctor to the person she was treating. She did the same to the colleagues of the same person she was treating by giving her [patient] medication.
The Gauteng department of ealth said Ramashala was nabbed in a ward. 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.
“The police were called to the scene, and preliminary investigations revealed that she was a bogus doctor. [She] was arrested and charged with impersonating a medical practitioner,” said Gauteng police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo.
Questions also remain about how Ramashala evaded security, gained access or what she was planning to do in the ward.
