A Pretoria hospital cleaner has told a high court in the South African capital that she became a vegetarian overnight after she found a piece of penis in her stew.

Sixty-year-old Sophie Matala, an employee at the Pretoria Medforum Hospital, related her story to the court in her damages claim of 2.5 million Rands against the hospital.

She said that her ordeal started on May 11, 1999 when she sat down for lunch at the hospital canteen and ordered her favourite plate of goulash and began to take a few bites of the meat.

Matala said she found the meat slippery and could not cut it with a knife. She then placed it in her mouth but the meat was so tough that she could not bite it.

She then took the meat out of her mouth and inspected it with her colleagues. To her horror she found that it was a piece of penis. But she could not find out whether it was human or animal.

Matala was so traumatised that she vomitted for the rest of the day and from that day was put-off by meat. She had since become a vegetarian.

Claiming damages, she alleged the hospital was responsible for the food at the canteen.     

The judge, however, turned down her application, as she had not submitted it within the stipulated time of three years.