Claims by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that President Thabo Mbeki intervened in Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s liver-transplant process are intended to injure Mbeki’s reputation, the Presidency said on Tuesday.
”The Presidency has noted the DA’s claims that President Mbeki called doctors at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre to insist that they approve a liver transplant for the minister of health,” a statement read.
”The Presidency also notes that the DA has approached the Public Protector to investigate its claims.
”The Presidency would like to inform the nation that the allegations made by the DA are in all respects without foundation. They are intended to score political points, to injure the office of the Presidency and the reputation of the president.
”In this regard, the Presidency, while respecting the right of the DA to approach the Public Protector, rejects the allegations with the contempt they deserve.”
Earlier, presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said: ”The DA’s claims are complete fiction. At no stage did the president call any doctor there, and at no stage did he contemplate doing so.”
The DA claimed that, according to an independent source, Mbeki phoned the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg, where the transplant was performed earlier this year, and insisted Tshabalala-Msimang receive the next available donor liver, irrespective of where she was on the waiting list.
It submitted a request for an investigation into this claim to Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana, and also wrote to the medical centre to establish the health minister’s position on the waiting list.
It would submit a parliamentary question on the subject on Tuesday.
The party is basing its inquiry on its contention that, if true, this would be an abuse of power.
The Public Protector’s office confirmed receiving the request and the office’s spokesperson, Charles Phahlane, said Mushwana would examine it and decide how to proceed.
Filing papers
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times would file papers in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday replying to Tshabalala-Msimang’s application to silence any comment on her medical records.
”We are filing papers to say why they’re not entitled to get an interdict as wide-ranging as they have sought,” said the newspaper’s attorney, Eric van den Berg.
He said the minister was seeking to prevent the paper from commenting on or publishing anything further on her health records relating to her 2005 stay in hospital.
All records and any references to her hospitalisation, treatment and medical status also had to be deleted from reporters’ notebooks and personal laptop computers.
Tshabalala-Msimang is also applying to interdict the newspaper from gaining unauthorised access to any of her other confidential records, he said.
On August 12, the paper alleged that, according to her medical records (a copy of which the paper had obtained), the minister had been drinking alcohol while at the Cape Town Medi-Clinic for a shoulder operation in 2005.
On Friday, the court ordered that the newspaper had to return all copies of the minister’s medical records to her.
One copy would be kept in a safety deposit box at a Standard Bank branch under the joint control of both parties.
In an affidavit submitted to court on Friday, the newspaper’s deputy managing-editor, Susan Smuts, said the newspaper wanted to keep a copy of the medical records in the event of it being sued.
”There is a real prospect that one or other of the applicants will sue the respondents for damages. The first applicant [Tshabalala-Msimang] has been reported in the media to be considering launching a further action for damages,” the affidavit read.
”They [the records] are relevant to, inter alia, actions based on defamation, invasion of privacy, disclosure of confidential information and any statutory defence under the National Health Act, that may be alleged.”
The newspaper maintained in the affidavit that the article was published in the public interest.
The court ordered that the Sunday Times had until close of business on Tuesday to file their answering application and the applicants [the minister and Medi-Clinic] had until close of business on Thursday to file any additional papers.
”Papers will be filed later on today [Tuesday],” said Van Den Berg.
The minister’s lawyer, Mponyana Ledwaba, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. — Sapa