WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-05-11 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
The South African Medical Association (Sama), representing almost three-quarters of the country’s doctors, has accused KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni of violating public service procedures and demanded that she apologise to its member, Dr Mark Blaylock, for her deplorable treatment of him.
Sama chairman Kgosi Letlape said he was also writing to the KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele, expressing displeasure at the MEC’s conduct, as well as to President Thabo Mbeki regarding Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s support for the MEC and her actions.
Blaylock is the Manguzi doctor who threw Nkonyeni’s photograph in a dustbin in February, and who was subsequently attacked as a racist by the MEC in her budget speech in the provincial legislature.
By going public with Blaylock’s “alleged transgressions”, Nkonyeni had violated the due process laid out by the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council, said Letlape. This was “unduly prejudicial” to Blaylock.
On Friday, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) was formally asked to investigate whether Nkonyeni had “abused her position to harass and violate the rights of doctors and the community at Manguzi Hospital and in the whole of Umkhanyekude district”.
The request was made by the Aids Law Project (ALP) on behalf of its clients, the SA HIV Clinicians Society, the Rural Doctors’ Association of SA and the Treatment Action Campaign.
The ALP alleges that the MEC violated the constitution on six different grounds, including infringing Blaylock’s rights to administrative justice, dignity and freedom of expression.
Citing a “clear pattern of harassment and intimidation by the MEC”, the ALP said in a letter to the commission that this had had a “chilling effect” on health-care workers in Um-khanyekude and their ability to provide health services.
In addition, the patient-doctor relationship in the district had been badly affected by media reports containing “explicit details” about allegations against Blaylock and his colleague, Dr Colin Pfaff.
This week, a five-person task team appointed by Nkonyeni visited Manguzi for a day and questioned staff about Blaylock and Pfaff, as well as the two doctors themselves.
A number of staff were questioned about Blaylock’s alleged short temper, according to hospital sources.
In addition, the task team wanted to know why Pfaff had raised donor funds to buy the anti-retroviral drug AZT to give to pregnant HIV-positive women as “dual therapy” to supplement the nevirapine-only prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission programme of the department.
However, the ALP questioned the impartiality of the task team, which is headed by Prof Eddie Mhlangu, a former chief director in the national Health Department who is now head of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
“The task team appears to be made up of government officials, including an employee of the Health Department who is alleged to have assisted the MEC in drafting her budget speech,” the ALP claimed.
“The terms of reference of the task team are not clear. What is clear, though, is that this was not an independent team and this has had an intimidating effect on doctors.”
Before being appointed to head the task team, Mhlangu described Blaylock’s actions as “not wise”, adding that “whatever we (doctors) do, we must not undermine those in authority”.
Investigations
Other task team members are Dr Reggie Perumal, an independent forensic pathologist who specialises in criminal investigations; Dr Bob Gopalan, head of anaesthetics at the UKZN; Dr S H Bhaila, a surgeon at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital; and Dr MC Conradie, a urologist at Grey’s Hospital.
Letlape said although allegations levelled at Blaylock deserved an investigation, Sama objected “to the way the MEC has gone about conducting this matter without due process”.
“The treatment Dr Blaylock has been subjected to by the MEC is deplorable,” said Letlape. “Sama demands that the MEC apologises to Dr Blaylock and set the record straight.”
He said as a member of Sama, Dr Blaylock would also “be appropriately represented on actions taken against him as a result of these allegations”.
Health Department spokesman Chris Maxon told the Sunday Tribune yesterday that Letlape should have spoken to the MEC before making “judgmental public statements”.
“Then he would understand the issues at hand,” said Maxon.
“Put simply, the department has instituted a task team that is conducting investigations against Dr Blaylock and his colleagues in the area. It started work on Monday, has nearly finished, and will now give a report to the MEC, who would like to get to the root of these issues.”