Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has appointed a task team to urgently tackle an invasion of monkeys at Durban’s RK Khan Hospital.
Motsoaledi flew to Durban on Wednesday to conduct a site visit at the state facility, which has long been grappling with the primates invading the hospital’s kitchen and, more recently, the wards.
He said he was extremely concerned and decided to take immediate action after watching a video on social media that shows monkeys roaming freely through a ward full of patients.
“The images I saw were disturbing. I just learnt this morning that the hospital was advised by some people who claim to know about monkeys not to interact with them or disturb them because they get aggressive,” said Motsoaledi.
“I don’t accept that type of advice – that monkeys can be just left among human beings, especially sick human beings, out of fear that they will get aggressive.”
