WOMAN HAS 'PENIS IN DINNER' LAW SUIT THROWN OUT
A 60-year-old South African woman has been told she cannot sue her
employer - after finding a penis in her canteen dinner.
The discovery of a piece of cooked penis in her stew was so traumatic for
the hospital cleaner that she had to receive psychiatric help, reports
South
African daily The Star.
Sophie Matlala says she was so upset that she became a vegetarian
overnight.
The Pretoria High Court heard this week that her ordeal at Medforum
Hospital
occurred on May 11, 1999, as she sat down for lunch and started to enjoy a
plate of goulash.
Ms Matlala took a couple of forkfulls of golash before "tackling the
meat".
She says it was slippery and she could not cut it with a knife. She took
it
in her hand and placed it in her mouth, but the court heard that the
"meat"
was so tough she could not bite through it.
She took the offending morsel out of her mouth, inspected it with her
colleagues, and they all concluded that it was a penis.
Ms Matlala said she vomited for the rest of the afternoon. She claimed
that
the hospital has a duty to ensure that meals served to staff are fit for
human consumption.
Hospital authorities confirmed the woman's suspicions, but indicated that
meals for the staff were obtained from a different supplier from the one
who
supplied food for patients.
Because it had been cooked, it could not be established whether the penis
was from a human or an animal.
Judge Phineas Mojapelo turned down her application. He pointed out that
she
had had three years from the date of the incident to institute legal
action
but had failed to do so until it was too late. He expressed the hope that
her legal advisers would advise her that she could institute a claim
against
them.
Story filed: 12:10 Wednesday 6th August 2003
Robin
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