The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday asked Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana to investigate whether Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang benefited from the inappropriate influence of President Thabo Mbeki.
It has been alleged that in March this year Mbeki called up surgeons at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre to insist that they approve a liver transplant for Tshabalala-Msimang, DA leader Helen Zille said in a statement.
”If this is true, it would be a disgraceful abuse of his public position.”
Therefore, DA spokesperson Mike Waters had written to Mushwana to ask him to investigate the allegations about the president’s call.
In the letter, Waters said it was also alleged that doctors were instructed to describe Tshabalala-Msimang’s condition as being the result of auto-immune hepatitis rather than its true cause, alcoholism.
”If it is true that such a call was made, then there are several concerns relating to the rights of the public in general and other patients with end-stage liver disease in particular,” he wrote.
Firstly, Mbeki would have misused his public position to oblige doctors to make a decision that was not necessarily medically appropriate.
Secondly, if other patients on the waiting list at the time were in greater need of an urgent transplant, the president’s intervention might have obliged doctors to prioritise political factors over medical factors, and it was possible a more deserving patient might have lost his or her life as a result.
Thirdly, if Mbeki indeed insisted doctors not reveal the true cause of Tshabalala-Msimang’s condition, this constituted an abuse of public position to conceal facts that were highly relevant to Tshabalala-Msimang’s position as national minister of health.
”A history of concealed and untreated alcoholism certainly calls into question her capacity to do her job, and the public has a right to know the truth,” Waters wrote.
Waters has also submitted a parliamentary question to Mbeki asking whether he made such a call.
Zille said she had further written to the Donald Gordon Medical Centre to ask them to release to the DA information about how many patients were on the waiting list for a liver at the time of the minister’s transplant, and the age, medical condition and current situation of each of these patients.
”It is necessary to establish exactly where on the priority list the minister was at the time of her operation to establish whether or not there was any undue influence on the doctors’ decision.”
In her letter to the centre’s Dr Sue Tager, Zille said she understood it would be unethical to produce the names of the individuals on the list, and she was not asking for this.
She wanted simply a ”snapshot of the situation relating to waiting lists at the time of Dr Tshabalala-Msimang’s operation”, Zille wrote.
A spokesperson for the Donald Gordon Medical Centre denied it had instructed staffers to lie about the minister’s condition while she was there.
The Sunday Times alleged that pressure was put on medical staff following the health minister’s transplant to keep secret her true medical condition.
Reports earlier in the year said she was suffering from auto-immune hepatitis.
Donald Gordon Medical Centre spokesperson Vernon Kinnear said that staffers were only asked to sign a document reminding them of the hospital’s policy on not divulging patient information without the consent of the patient.
”Basically they signed an acknowledgement about the policy. It’s just to ensure that we keep our patients safe. I think it would be expected from anybody … even if it is the minister of health … if I was a clerk I would expect the same,” he said.
‘Bring the information’
Meanwhile, the Presidency on Monday reiterated its stand on controversial reports on Tshabalala-Msimang, saying it would only investigate once it was given evidence to back the claims.
The Sunday Times reported that Tshabalala-Msimang had allegedly stolen from a hospital in Botswana and had been banned from Botswana as a result, and that chronic alcoholism necessitated a new liver.
”We must get evidence and then we will respond to the evidence that is available. There is no investigation to conduct,” said Ratshitanga.
”The Presidency has asked for a very simple thing. These are allegations that are arising from quarters that seemingly have some evidence. We believe that these quarters would not put these allegations in the public domain if they were not confident about the veracity of their ability to prove them. We are inviting them to bring the information.”
The Health Department rejected the story, saying: ”As it did last week, the Sunday Times has yet again made false, speculative and bizarre allegations designed to demean the minister, the government of which she is part and the people who voted for that government.”
Ratshitanga said a deputy health minister to replace recently sacked deputy Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge would be announced ”in due course”.
Spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said there was currently no acting deputy minister of health.
Madlala-Routledge was sacked recently for travelling to Spain to attend an HIV/Aids conference without authorisation from President Thabo Mbeki.
Neither the Health Department spokesperson nor the editor of the Sunday Times was immediately available for further comment.
Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has urged Mbeki to investigate reported allegations against Tshabalala-Msimang to establish whether they are true.
Cosatu said on Monday it supported Mbeki’s call on the Sunday Times to produce evidence for its allegations about the minister.
”But in view of their seriousness, [Cosatu] urges the president to conduct a full investigation into the allegations to establish whether, and to what degree, they are true or false.” — Sapa