Paul Stober
A FORMER Vanderbijlpark district surgeon is appearing before a South African Medical and Dental Council disciplinary committee for allegedly helping cover up police torture.
Albert Niemann has been accused of sending a false medical certificate to a magistrate’s court, declaring an awaiting-trial prisoner with signs of physical abuse “completely normal”.
The prisoner, Michael Thithi, was arrested in connection with the murder of a shopkeeper near Vanderbijlpark.
At a hearing this week, Thithi testified that he had been repeatedly shocked and beaten by the three investigating officers after his arrest.
Thithi alleged that he was so badly beaten by the investigating officers on the day before he was due in court that he had to be helped before the magistrate. The magistrate refused to proceed with the case until Thithi had been taken to a doctor and the cause of his injuries identified, said Thithi.
Thithi was then taken by the investigating officer to the district surgeon, Niemann. According to Thithi, three police officers accompanied him into the examining room.
Said Thithi: “After they explained everything to him, the doctor asked me what was wrong. I explained about the injuries on my body and private parts. The doctor asked if I was a heavy smoker. I said yes. The doctor told me the cigarettes was the main cause … and it made me feel pain. He did not examine me but the police officer told him to say in the statement that I acted as if I was a mad person.”
Niemann subsequently sent a certificate to the magistrate’s court which read: “My opinion is that this patient is completely normal.”
Thithi objected to the contents of the certificate, saying the investigating officer had influenced the doctor to say nothing was wrong with him.
The magistrate then ordered that Thithi be examined by Vereeniging district surgeon Jennifer Kuhn. She found: “The patient had a perforation of his left eardrum as well as soft tissue on the left side of his chest over ribs four, five and six. The swelling over his ribs is warm and swollen. His injuries are consistent with an assault which took place about a week ago.”
Under cross-examination, she conceded that she could not clinically prove that Thithi’s injuries had been caused by an assault.
At the beginning of February 1993, the prosecutor dropped the charges against Thithi. The disciplinary hearing continues, and the disciplinary committee will sit in two weeks’ time.