Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday thumbed her nose at her critics, saying she was there to stay.
Independent Online quoted her as telling reporters in East London she would not resign amid accusations that she is an alcoholic who abused her position to get a liver transplant.
”I’m not stepping down. Because I don’t understand why I should step down unless, as the president has said, you give him reasons for what it is that I have done,” the minister said.
”Have I neglected the duties assigned to me? Have I?”
She said President Thabo Mbeki had appointed her and it was his prerogative to relieve her of her responsibilities.
Tshabalala-Msimang was speaking to the media on a National Health Council tour of hospitals in the Eastern Cape.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that she refused to comment on claims of a theft conviction against her while she was working in Botswana in the 1970s.
”I have not come here to talk about the Botswana story …I have come in a very concerted effort to see what is it that we can do as the council to improve the quality of health that we delivered to our people. That is what I have come here to do.”
The minister said all those who had made allegations against her should come forward with evidence.
Frere Hospital
Meanwhile, Tshabalala-Msimang was not part of a group of officials visiting the Frere Hospital in East London on Thursday.
Her spokesperson, Sibani Mngadi, said the minister was not part of the group visiting the Frere Hospital.
The Daily Dispatch had reported that 2 000 babies were stillborn at the hospital’s maternity ward over the past 14 years, and that 43 newborn babies had died in July.
Tshabalala-Msimang had earlier said that she would not be going back to Frere ”because as I understand it, certain recommendations that were made have already been implemented”.
Former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was fired by President Thabo Mbeki earlier this month, in part for comments made after a visit to the hospital.
Mngadi said: ”To try and cover as much of this large province as possible, we have divided ourselves into four groups. One group is going to health facilities in the Port Elizabeth Complex.”
”… the second group is going to Umtata Complex, the third one is remaining in the East London area and the fourth group goes to Alfred Nzo District.”
Tshabalala-Msimang is visiting the Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
The Democratic Alliance said on Thursday that the Health Ministry was ”turning the Frere Hospital into a publicity road-show to distract attention away from her [the minister’s] criminal record”.
”However, the hospital’s long-term problems are still being ignored,” said the DA spokesperson on health, Mike Waters.
Court
Arguments by the Sunday Times and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on the return of the health minister’s medical records were expected in the Johannesburg High Court on Friday.
The Sunday Times filed court papers on Tuesday and the minister’s lawyers were expected to file a reply to the newspaper’s defence by 4pm on Thursday.
Both legal teams were confident that the argument would be heard on Friday.
The furore over the minister’s medical records arose after the Sunday Times published a story on August 12 alleging that Tshabalala-Msimang had abused alcohol, including drinking in a hospital ward.
The following Sunday, the newspaper published an editorial alleging that the minister had failed to stop drinking six months before her liver transplant and had continued to drink after the transplant. She therefore did not qualify for the transplant.
The Sunday Times said this raised questions of an abuse of power, favouritism, or preferential treatment that enabled her to receive a rare organ ahead of other deserving recipients.
It also revealed that the minister had been found guilty of theft while in exile in Botswana in 1976.
The minister wants a court order compelling the newspaper to return all copies of her 2005 medical records, and to silence any further comment or publication about these records, which are usually confidential.
The minister claims that the reports were stolen from Cape Town Medi-Clinic. — Sapa