The war between the Sunday Times and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang continued in this weekend’s edition of the newspaper.
It alleged that she had required her liver transplant this year because she was an alcoholic and that the transplant and subsequent cover-up caused tension among doctors and staff involved.
They knew that Tshabalala-Msimang had been drinking before the surgery, the Sunday Times said, with standard procedure being that alcoholic patients stop drinking for between six to 12 months before surgery, and permanently after surgery, the report read.
The newspaper further alleged that the health minister had been convicted of stealing a watch from a patient who was under an anaesthetic while superintendent of a hospital in Botswana in 1976. She was then expelled from the country and declared a prohibited immigrant, according to the report.
The report quoted an employee at the Athlone Hospital at Lobatse, near Gaborone, who was not named, as saying: ”Everyone here thinks it’s hilarious that she is today a health minister in South Africa.”
Health Ministry spokespersons Sibani Mngadi and Charity Bhengu could not be reached for comment.
Court order
Last weekend, the Sunday Times published a story about the minister’s alleged drinking while at the Cape Town Medi-Clinic for a shoulder operation in 2005.
The newspaper had admitted to being in possession of the confidential medical records of the minister, leading to a Johannesburg High Court order compelling it to return all but one copy to the hospital. This copy is to be held under the joint control of both parties.
In terms of the court order, the Sunday Times must also refrain from reporting or commenting on any of Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical reports pending the outcome of the rest of the application.
The notice of motion filed on Thursday called on four respondents — Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya, journalists Jocelyn Maker and Megan Power, and Johnnic Publications, which owns the newspaper — to deliver various documents to the applicant’s lawyers by close of business.
In her accompanying affidavit, the minister called the conduct of the respondents ”not only … unlawful” but ”high-handed as well”. ”Such conduct calls for censure in the strongest terms possible.”
She said various terms of the National Health Act had been violated. These included the obligation of a clinic to keep records of all patients, the right of a patient to have medical information kept confidential, and the obligation of health workers not to disclose medical information unless for legitimate purposes.
”I have a clear right to my privacy and dignity and to protect those rights,” the minister said.
Manto and Mbeki
In an unusual lead editorial, the Mail & Guardian on Friday described the situation thus: ”At issue is much more than Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s effectiveness and the consequences of her alleged tippling on the job, or the firing of her deputy, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. More is at issue than even Frere Hospital, where mothers who have lost their babies to an appallingly high neonatal death toll have shared their grief with the nation.
”It is in the gulf between their stark grief and the cold comfort of Mbeki’s online response — that the deaths of their babies were statistically average — that we can see what is happening. That letter, too confident by half in its intellectual posturing, and Mbeki’s actions since he wrote it, typify a political culture that is under serious threat.
”The sacking of Madlala-Routledge has made international waves and reopened the battles with civil society. Big business is baffled at the president’s action; and the public health sector is increasingly in open revolt.”
Referring to the Sunday Times report of Tshabalala-Msimang’s alleged drinking and bad behaviour while in hospital for a shoulder operation, Mbeki alleged the newspaper had timed its article ”to project these in a caricature of derogation” and ”to demean the person of the minister”.
”More attempts to shoot the messenger,” said the M&G. ”The minister’s drinking habits are an open secret in the public service, yet have never been tackled.
”Mbeki’s defence of Tshabalala-Msimang, and his inaction on grave and longstanding concerns surrounding her, again highlight his dual culture of blind loyalty and vicious ostracism.”