Paul Kirk A Mail & Guardian investigation into the medical abuse of conscripts by the former South African Defence Force (SADF) has uncovered that both the University of Pretoria and the SADF were warned of the bizarre experiments being conducted under the care of Dr Aubrey Levin but did nothing to stop the abuse. The medical files of some of his alleged victims have also apparently disappeared, making it impossible for them to seek medical help to repair the damage done to them by the military. When the Medical Research Council (MRC) conducted a study on the controversial aversion therapy project headed by Levin one of the few medical professionals the MRC got to speak out about their colleague was Trudie Grobler, who was quoted in its report. Grobler was deeply disturbed after she saw Levin supervising aversion therapy on a suspected lesbian. Had GroblerOs complaints been taken seriously many lives would not have been wrecked by psychological terror inflicted by Levin. During the session that terrified Grobler, so much electrical current was passed through the patientOs body that her shoes flew off her feet. Grobler immediately complained about Levin to both the University of Pretoria where she had studied and the SADF. At the root of her complaint was the brutality with which patients were treated. She as well as a small number of other Otrouble-makersO were kept out of certain sections of LevinOs ward by armed orderlies. Even so she was still aware of the serious abuses of human rights being made against troopies. Among the abuses were gender reassignment procedures carried out without proper psychological counselling.
No action was ever taken against Levin by either institution. Levin, who loved to be addressed as die kolonel joined the South African army with that rank straight from medical school a rank that some suggest was given to him largely because of his close links to the National Party. Indeed his links with the NP almost predate his obsession with OtreatingO homosexuals. While at university he attempted to start the South African StudentsO Association, a movement of students loyal to the NP. His father, a boxing promoter, had been the first-ever Jewish member of the NP in the 1950s. His uncle was the first Jewish MP for the party. LevinOs fascination with homosexuality is first documented in a letter penned by him to the secretary of Parliament in February 1968. In this letter, held by the Gay and Lesbian Archives at Wits University, he explains he is a medical practitioner and is still in training as a psychiatrist. The letter seeks to have Parliament invite him to give evidence on possible changes to the laws against homosexuality in force at the time. Said Levin: OI have in the course of my work treated many homosexuals and lesbians and enjoyed some measure of success in therapy.O
He then goes on to list the sterling service he has done for the NP including serving as the Ovice-chairman of the Houghton divisional committee of the National Party of the Transvaal, and a former chairman of the Point Branch of the National PartyO. Throughout LevinOs career in dealing with homosexuals he practiced aversion therapy despite the fact that a year before he wrote his letter to Parliament the therapy had been discredited throughout Europe. Only a year after Levin joined the army homosexuality was no longer classified as a disorder by any medical textbook in existence.
After leaving the military to work at the University of the Orange Free State, Levin still had access to national servicemen who were referred to him by 3 Military Hospital at Tempe. Tempe had no psychiatric ward of its own. Soon after leaving Bloemfontein, Levin moved to Fort England, a psychiatric hospital near Rhodes University. Here, sources within the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality have confirmed, Levin attempted to continue his aversion therapy project on Rhodes students, forcing students to Ocome outO in front of their parents on whose behalf he would offer to OcureO their children. At Fort England Levin soon developed a reputation for prescribing huge doses of drugs with a heavy bias toward prescribing Valium.
Research conducted on behalf of the MRC uncovered allegations that patients at that hospital frequently reported being undressed and sexually molested while heavily drugged. When the M&G attempted to obtain a copy of the letter of complaint against Levin, Major Louis Kirstein, a representative for the Department of Defence, told the M&G that this would take some time to find as records dating back to that period are not kept on computers. Said Kirstein: OThe other problem is that after a period of time records are shredded.O
Attempts to obtain comment from the University of Pretoria had not been successful at the time of going to press. Attempts to obtain the medical records of one of the victims failed as his file appears to have vanished. Mikki van Zyl, one of the researchers who studied the aversion therapy programme, confirmed that despite numerous attempts by the victim himself, Jean Erasmus was never able to obtain his medical file. He was also never told what medicines he was being given while in the army. The medicines left him impotent. OWhat hope is there of helping someone when you have no idea what was done to them,O said Van Zyl. Erasmus apparently committed suicide.
Asked to comment on the complete lack of action by the SADF and Pretoria University, Carrie Shelver, a representative of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, said: OIf you put the issue in context you have a junior intern a female one at that making a complaint about a very senior and very powerful male doctor who was a leading light in the ruling party at the time. It is hardly surprising that nobody took her seriously. And that is a great tragedy.O Victims of aversion therapy, chemical castration or other abuse by the medical profession can contact the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality for counselling or advice on Tel: (011) 487 3810