Publishing allegations of alcohol and power abuses by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang formed part of a national debate, the Sunday Times contended on Tuesday.
”There is a debate in South Africa … as to whether or not the first applicant is a fit occupant of the high office she holds,” the paper says in an affidavit served in the afternoon.
It contains the response of the Sunday Times to the minister’s legal application to prevent the paper from commenting on or publishing any further on her health records relating to a 2005 stay in hospital.
”This debate is carried out in public in the columns of newspapers and on radio,” says Sunday Times deputy managing editor Susan Smuts in the answering affidavit.
”It is also quite obviously carried out by ordinary citizens in the course of ordinary social interaction. The revelations of alcohol abuse made in the Sunday Times … are part of the debate over the first applicant’s fitness for office.”
On August 19, the paper alleged the health minister was an alcoholic and convicted thief.
The previous Sunday it published an article detailing the minister’s alleged drinking habits during a Cape Town hospital stay two years ago.
Smuts says there are three reasons why the Sunday Times plays a pivotal role in assessing the acceptability of the health minister’s conduct.
Firstly, the minister has promoted numerous campaigns against alcohol abuse, says Smuts.
”This raises the question of the first applicant’s consistency and whether she is a suitable vehicle for such a message.”
Secondly, the minister has attracted criticism for policies she has made in her department.
”The extent to which alcohol abuse may have affected the first applicant’s judgement and her behaviour are matters of public interest,” says Smuts.
Thirdly, taking alcohol before and after operations and while on pain killers and sleeping pills indicates behaviour that is ”undisciplined and arguably inappropriate in a medical practitioner and minister of health”.
‘Not confidential’
Smuts confirmed in the papers that the Sunday Times has had access to the medical records relating to a hospital stay in 2005.
However, ”so germane are the allegations of alcohol abuse to the first applicant’s fitness for office, that they are not confidential”, she says.
”Such access is justified by the great public interest in the information published.”
Smuts says there are no legal or constitutional justifications for why the minister should be allowed to shut down any commentary on her medical records.
In fact, the constitutional right to freedom of information in post-apartheid South Africa should protect the Sunday Times in this case, she says.
Smuts says several aspects of Tshabalala-Msimang’s decisions and use of power should be judged in accordance with the guidelines of conduct established for Cabinet ministers and doctors.
In particular, the dismissal of deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge and the suspension of Cecilia Makiwane Hospital deputy CEO Nokuzola Ntshona, who spoke out about health issues, ”raise grave concerns about the suppression of dissent within the government generally and the health system in particular”.
In the affidavit, Smuts says the Sunday Times has received a number of reports from people who witnessed the minister consuming ”an excess of alcohol”.
The affidavit details a number of these incidents.
”It is common knowledge in political and media circles that the first applicant drinks alcohol to excess.”
She says the paper decided to run the stories after receiving information from confidential sources ”for months now” about aspects of the minister’s health and behaviour that are a ”cause for concern as to whether or not she is properly able to carry out the duties of her high office”.
This answering affidavit is expected to be filed in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday.
It was served on the minister’s legal team on Tuesday afternoon.
Last week, the minister and a medi-clinic she attended filed papers to try to ensure all records and any references to her hospitalisation, treatment and medical status was 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.
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. — Sapa