A Soweto woman claims she was promised R10 000 to pose as a doctor at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Academic Hospital so she could spy for a Daily Sun journalist.
Fikile Busisiwe Khanyi, 26, said she was given a stethoscope and a name tag with “Dr FB Khanyi” printed on it by journalist “Simphiwe Sithole” so he could gain access to the hospital and medical wards.
She told the Orlando Magistrate’s Court yesterday the journalist had “told me that he had found me a job”. Khanyi said she had started her act in January and was caught a few days later on January 25.
“He told me my job was to go to the hospital and look at how patients were treated, and if I spotted anything wrong, I must call him. He promised to pay me R10 000 if I had a story for him,” said Khanyi.
Khanyi said she had spent time walking through wards, and all she did was “greet nursing staff”.
State witness Thembinkosi Ngema, who is a senior human resources officer at the hospital, said Khanyi had identified herself as a doctor and told him that she had “studied in Canada for seven years”.
He said Khanyi, who had a doctor’s name tag on and a stethoscope around her neck, told him during their first encounter that she worked in the casualty section and the following day she said she worked in the maternity section.
After a chat with her, Ngema said he had tried to verify her details on the computer system, but her name was not there.
Ngema said he had reported this to his superiors, who later told him that Khanyi was “in fact not a doctor”.
He said Khanyi’s presence at the hospital had “put patients’ lives at risk” as she might have been expected to help in an emergency.
The hospital’s head of security, Jacob Mokwaledi, said he and other officials had interviewed Khanyi after she was caught. She had “told us she had trained as a doctor at Mangosuthu Technikon”, which did not offer studies for medicine.
“She later made a confession, saying she had been recruited by a journalist from the Daily Sun to come and spy for him. I think she was on a mission to expose whatever she was looking for at Bara,” said Mokwaledi.
Khanyi said she had alerted Sithole that she had been caught. The journalist promised to call her back but never did. She failed to get hold of him later when she tried calling him in the presence of hospital officials.
Khanyi, who is out on bail, is expected back in court on June 14 for judgment after both the State and defence closed their cases yesterday.