Mbekweni man plays `doctor-doctor'
2005-11-17
HOW many unsuspecting patients were treated by a man claiming to be a medical doctor - as well as a minister of religion - in Mbekweni?
That question needs an answer quickly, say police investigators who have charged Andreas Nooi (49) of 137 W-Block, Mbekweni, with fraud.
The “doctor” not only examined his patients in his cubicle-sized office in Phokeng Street, he also gave injections and handed out home-made medicines.
The police visited the bespectacled, goateed Nooi after a Mbekweni resident asked for advice when her employer would not accept the sick certificate she offered.
They found an ashen-faced man lounging outside the surgery next to a funeral parlour, waiting for his turn to be treated for diabetes.
No evidence could be found to substantiate the sign against the surgery wall claiming the emaciated man to be the “Director General Dr Most Rev AM Nooi”.
Certificates lining the brick walls were all photocopies. A black graduation robe as well as a white doctor’s overcoat with a red and a black pen in the top pocket, hung on the wall.
Behind the door a shabby white gown was draped over a hook, for patients to wear while being examined. There was no examination bed, with space only for a white garden chair and a lopsided table.
Dog-eared ledgers with names and entries of patients and illnesses filled several cardboard boxes.
Police officials sealed medicines - containers with unidentified liquid and decantered substances in smaller bottles - for forensic examination.
When Mbekweni’s police commander, Supt William Dyantyi, questioned the suspect about his studies and the graduation ceremony at Fort Hare, he was not impressed by the “doctor’s” account of his years at medical school.
“We are looking at a case of fraud,” Supt Dyantyi said.
“Members of the community need to be protected against exploitation.”
Nooi offered nursing services and his services as a qualified medical doctor, but also issued marriage and baptism certificates.
Supt Dyantyi requested patients who had been treated at the make-shift surgery to contact Mbekweni detective commander Capt Selma Bredenhann (864-1515).
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