OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday 9.00am
THREE Pretoria High Court judges on Thursday upheld an appeal by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association and the Crop Protection and Animal Welfare Association to set aside the new medical control laws.
A full bench of the high court found Judge H J Fabricius had erred in his refusal to set aside the new legislation that effectively opened up a loophole that made potentially dangerous drugs legal.
The ruling by Fabricius was given at an urgent application on May 28 by then President Nelson Mandela, former Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma and several other parties to set aside the act.
At the request of Zuma, President Nelson Mandela in April declared the old law scrapped and the new South African Medicines and Medical Devices Regulatory Authority Act was implemented on April 30. What neither he nor Zuma realised was that the law was not ready for implementation and that none of the regulations and schedules which categorise drugs and provide for who can buy, sell, prescribe and administer them was yet in place.
The bungle left police powerless to prevent the abuse of potentially dangerous drugs. Transvaal Judge President B M Ngoepe, Judge J D M Swart and Judge R W Nugent ruled on Thursday that the South African Medicines and Medical Devices Regulatory Authority Act and Schedules are not valid and that earlier legislation is still applicable.
Director-General of Health Jan Pretorius said in the urgent application that neither Mandela nor Zuma realised an incorrect procedure had been followed in the publication of the new schedules.