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Message: [QUOTE="Queen, post: 84998, member: 27"] Someone keeps farming Mpilo Central Hospital for copper, and the fallout keeps smacking doctors, patients, and budgets where it hurts most. What just blew up [LIST] [*]So yeah, the junior doctors' housing at Mpilo Central Hospital keeps getting looted. [*]Since doctors moved back in May 2023, thieves have been running a rinse-and-repeat routine. [*]Copper pipes, electrical cables, brass taps, basically anything shiny and sellable keeps vanishing. [/LIST] Why this place mattered [LIST] [*]The quarters were rebuilt after nasty fires in 2018, 2019, and 2021 wrecked things. [*]Reconstruction wrapped up about two-and-a-half years ago, so this was supposed to be a fresh start. [*]Junior doctors only got back in after long rehab work, which makes this sting extra hard. [/LIST] How the thefts actually go down [LIST] [*]Criminals yank copper piping tied to solar geyser systems, then dip. [*]Electrical components and fittings also get ripped out and flipped to scrap dealers. [*]A chunk of the palisade fence was cut, which screams organized crew, not random nonsense. [/LIST] What hospital leadership is saying [LIST] [*]Phineas Sithole basically says the damage just keeps stacking up. [*]Copper pipes have been stolen multiple times, not once, not twice, multiple. [*]To slow the bleeding, the hospital is swapping copper for PVC, which says everything about how bad it got. [/LIST] Damage beyond the housing [LIST] [*]The mess spilled into the hospital laundry, because of course it did. [*]Specialized electrical cables were taken, and switchboards were wrecked. [*]Linen washing got disrupted, which is not a small thing in a hospital. [/LIST] How criminals got inside [LIST] [*]During window frame replacements, thieves spotted their moment. [*]While contractors worked, the laundry room got hit. [*]Opportunistic, calculated, and zero shame. [/LIST] Why this is actually dangerous [LIST] [*]Money meant for medicines and supplies keeps getting rerouted to repairs. [*]Patients end up paying the price for someone else chasing scrap cash. [*]Scarce resources get burned on fixing sabotage instead of saving lives. [/LIST] This already happened before [LIST] [*]Last year, thieves hit a substation run by Zesa Holdings that feeds the hospital. [*]The hospital had to go full generator mode, no backup. [*]At peak chaos, 10 generators were guzzling around 300 liters of diesel each day. [*]That tab landed near US$4,800 daily, which is pure financial pain for any hospital. [/LIST] Bottom line vibe [LIST] [*]This is not petty theft anymore. [*]It is infrastructure sabotage with real-world consequences. [*]And yeah, the hospital keeps paying for it, again and again. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

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