PRETORIA – Eyewitness News on Tuesday learnt how nurses at the Soshanguve Clinic only started treating a woman who had given birth to her baby on the pavement outside the facility when a member of the public summoned the police.

For more than an hour, nurses apparently ignored calls to help Nomsa Mathebula, who had gone into labour last Thursday. 

The same nurses had earlier referred her to a larger hospital claiming they could not help her because her blood pressure was too low.

Mathebula collapsed just metres from the Soshanguve Clinic’s front gate. 

That is where Onicca Babedi found her.

She said despite numerous calls for the nurses to help, Mathebula gave birth on the pavement. 

Bapedi said when women started screaming that the baby wasn’t breathing, she also tried to get the nurses to act. 

“I started calling everyone, screaming. I was panicking as well, but nobody was helping – they just looked at me. ”

Bapedi said she called the police for help, and that only when they arrived did the nurses come out of the clinic to see to Mathebula. 

for full details go to ewn.co.za