The editor of the Sunday Times and one of its journalists will be arrested this week to face charges of being illegally in possession of the health minister’s medical records.
Editor Mondli Makhanya and deputy managing editor Jocelyn Maker will be hauled to Cape Town in connection with charges of theft and for contravention of section 17 of the National Health Act — which states that it is an offence to gain access to a person’s confidential record, reported the Sunday Times.
Makhanya and Maker are expected to appear before a magistrate by the end of the week.
One of the country’s top police officers, Director JJ Brand, is in charge of the case.
Cape Town lawyer Steve Broekmann, who represents two clients who were questioned by Brand and a colleague for more than three hours on Friday in connection with the case, confirmed that Makhanya and Maker will be taken to court.
According to the weekly, since the investigation into the missing records began, several sources had warned the paper that Makhanya and Maker’s cellphones were being tapped.
Senior government officials and African National Congress leaders had also privately warned for several months that President Thabo Mbeki’s inner circle was unhappy about the paper’s critical reporting.
This followed an article published on August 12 about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s stay at the Cape Town Medi-Clinic in 2005 where she reportedly sent staff to buy alcohol, threw drunken tantrums and washed down medication with wine and whisky.
The Johannesburg High Court then ordered the Sunday Times to return the minister’s medical records and copies thereof to the hospital. However, Judge Mahomed Jajbhay ruled that personal notes of Sunday Times journalists were not affected by his order and the newspaper could continue to comment on the matter.
Jajbhay criticised the Sunday Times for not affording Tshabalala-Msimang an opportunity to respond to the contents of her medical records prior to publication of the story.
“It is not clear if any of the respondents [the Sunday Times and its journalists] in the present matter took the necessary steps to investigate the illegal status of the medical records that they were armed with. There is an ethical obligation on journalists in matters such as the present to ascertain whether the document that they are armed with has in fact been legally obtained,” the judge said.
Makhanya said of the planned arrests: “We are all equal before the law, whether we are senior politicians, police commissioners or journalists. We will not be expecting any executive intervention to have this probe quashed.”