A FAMILY wants answers after their relative disappeared from hospital and was later found dead in a pit on a diamond mine.

Mzwanele Mhlabelwane, 37, of Wolmaransstad Extension 13 in North West was taken to Nic Bodenstein Hospital after a referral by the local clinic on Friday March 13.

His cousin Samuel Leeuw said the family wants to know how Mhlabelwane escaped from a guarded public hospital.

His body was found after a three-day search on a mine. Police spokesman Sabata Mokgwabone said that a body was found in a pit.

Leeuw said on arrival at the hospital, Mhlabelwane "was talking but making no sense at all. He would say he was seeing people who were not even there. The nurse then suggested that he be given medication which would keep him calm".

Leeuw, together with a friend who had accompanied him and his cousin's wife to the hospital, then left, leaving Mhlabelwane's wife, Maria, by his bedside.

Not long after he had arrived home, Leeuw received a call that Mhlabelwane had escaped from the hospital.

For three days, Leeuw and friends scoured the area looking for Mhlabelwane but their efforts were in vain.

Leeuw said on the third day of the search, police told them they had found him in a pit on the mine premises.

The mine owner, who only identified himself as Van Niekerk, confirmed that a body was found on his property.

Health department spokesman Tebogo Lekgethwane said Mhlabelwane was "restless" when he was brought to the hospital. He said Mhlabelwane became calm and remained in casualty ward for observation after he was given medication. However he woke at 3.45am to go to the toilet and became aggressive and demanded to go home.

Lekgethwane said given the patient's agitation, the doctor on duty once more prescribed medication but Mhlabelwane disappeared before it could be administered.

"The hospital security immediately activated a search of the premises. The police were called and promptly attended the scene. The patient was reported to have climbed over the fence at the rear of the hospital," he said.

selebim@sowetan.co.za