A man has been arrested for allegedly raping a 17-year-old in a maternity ward in Mthatha – a day after she had given birth, police said on Tuesday.

Captain Dineo Koena said the 30-year-old man posed as a doctor who was visiting the teen for a post-natal check up on Tuesday morning. She had given birth on Monday.

“It is further alleged that [he] ordered her to undress so as to do [a] thorough checkup and afterwards raped her in her maternity ward,” said Koena.

Police were alerted and arrested a man at the hospital at about 12:30.

He is to appear in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Eastern Cape health department spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha said the incident did not take place at a public hospital.

Comment from the hospital was not immediately available.