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I welcome the conviction of Dr James Mwesigwa who was yesterday found guilty by the Kempton Park Magistrates Court of stealing organs from a dead body at the Diepkloof mortuary.

This has been a long-running case as he was suspended from the mortuary in November 2013 after he tried to walk out of the mortuary with a bucket that contained a brain, lungs and heart.

It seems that he wanted these body parts for some kind of witchcraft.

The Gauteng Health Department handled this case very badly, suspending him on full pay for 17 months, during which time he received R1.54 million, before resigning in March 2015.

Ways should be found to speed up cases like this as Dr Mwesigwa has been free to practice as a doctor for all this time.

I hope that he gets a very severe prison sentence for this heinous crime of desecrating the dead.

Issued by The DA