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.
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