Ann Eveleth
DURBAN millionaire Vivian Reddy this week hit back at the Democratic Party with claims that the party’s “vicious” criticism of Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma were backed by powerful interests in the pharmaceutical industry.
Lashing out at DP health spokesman Mike Ellis after he gave credence to reports linking Reddy to Sarafina II’s R10,2m mystery bail-out, Reddy said he would ask Public Protector Selby Baqwa to probe alleged links between Ellis and the pharmaceutical industry, which has opposed Zuma’s drug policies. “We have reviewed Hansard and Ellis has been quick to criticise Zuma at every turn. We believe vested pharmaceutical interests are behind his constant attacks on the minister,” Reddy alleged.
Reddy claimed he had “documentary proof” that pharmaceutical interests had paid for a recent visit by Ellis and his family to the Far East. He hoped the matter would come up in this week’s parliamentary debate on the question of anonymous donors.
Ellis denied “vehemently” that any pharmaceutical company had influenced him or any of his political decisions. He also denied any ties with any pharmaceutical company. But he admitted he had been on several trips, with his wife, which had been funded by pharmaceutical companies.
He said he had been to the Far East twice last year with the foreign affairs committee, to London with Smithcon Beecham pharmaceutical company along with former director general in the Health Department Manto Tshabalala and the editor of the South African medical journal. He said four years ago he and his wife went to the Far East to attend the international Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association biannual conference, and this trip was paid for by Hoechst, a German company. He said in 1991 he and his wife went on a study tour of Europe which was paid for by various pharmaceutical companies.
Ellis also said Reddy’s personal attack may be related to his “guilty conscience because the DP is still waiting for a sum of money he promised us before the 1994 elections”.
Mirryena Deeb, on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Association, said she knew of no such sponsorship by the association, but that individual companies may have hosted Ellis or other MPs on visits to industrial sites in other countries. Deeb said a request had been made to members of the industry to host a visit by some members of the parliamentary health committee to the United Kingdom last year, and Ellis may have been part of the delegation, but stressed that this was “definitely not an initiative of the association”. Deeb said the industry had made its repesentations on its concerns about Zuma’s drug policy “directly to the minister”.
President Nelson Mandela this week, however, backed Reddy’s allegations that the industry was behind recent criticism of Zuma. Speaking after the mystery donation was cancelled under pressure for dislosure, Mandela said the Sarafina saga was a “smokescreen” for efforts to target Zuma by medicine conglomerates which she had taken on.