Mpumalanga Prosecutes Anti-rape Doctors.

African Eye News Service February 19, 2001 Justin Arenstein, Nelspruit

 Mpumalanga is prosecuting doctors and nurses who tried to help rural rape victims get counselling and free anti-Aids drugs for 'gross misconduct'.

 The province's health MEC Sibongile Manana has already fired district health manager Careen Swart for failing to get written authorisation for the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (GRIP) to operate in Rob Ferreira hospital in Nelspruit.
Manana also this month quietly charged hospital superintendent Dr Thys van Mollendorff, hospital manager David Mdluli, chief matron Thuli Khoza and social worker Dianne van Heerden with misconduct for their tacit support of GRIP's work.
GRIP is a self-funded group of volunteer Nelspruit housewives and rape survivors who offer rape counselling, clean clothing and free anti-retroviral drugs to the hundreds of women and children who are referred to Rob Ferreira after sexual assaults every month.
Manana accused GRIP of distributing anti-retroviral drugs such as AZT as part of a plot to undermine President Thabo Mbeki and the African National Congress (ANC) government.
She banned AZT from all government facilities and insisted during a series of public tirades late last year that the drugs endangered black lives and threatened to turn the country into a "banana republic".
Manana evicted GRIP from the hospital and banned officials from speaking to it after the organisation ignored the AZT ban, but was forced to invite the volunteer group back in October following massive local and international outrage. Manana now appears to have redirected her anger at hospital officials. She first charged and fired Swart for allegedly irregularly allowing GRIP into the hospital without written permission, and this month charged the entire management of Rob Ferreira for gross misconduct. 
Her spokesman, George Mohlomunyane, refused to list the charges this week and would only say the officials being prosecuted in terms of Resolution 2 of the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council's disciplinary code. "At the moment we are not able to disclose much information because the hearing is still on," he said. Health superintendent general Dr Gulam Karim was also reluctant to comment on the case on Friday, describing it as "sensitive" and insisting that the hearings, which are closed to the public, were sub judicae. Karim acknowledged that GRIP was only one of 49 non-government organisations or volunteer groups such as the Cancer Association, Rotary Club and Lions working at Rob Ferreira without formal written permission but was unable to say why the anti-rape group was singled out. He was also unable to say why doctors and managers at neighbouring hospitals such as Themba had not been charged for allowing GRIP into their wards. 
Both Manana and Mohlomunyane have meanwhile declined to comment on indications that Manana herself enjoys access to expensive private sector rape counselling and anti-retroviral drugs at taxpayer expense through her government medical aid policy. 
Swart and the other accused have been instructed not to speak to the media, while their union, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) said it would only comment after an unfair dismissal appeal to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Swart's behalf. The disciplinary hearings against Dr Van Mollendorff, Mdluli, Van Heerden and Khoza continue later this month. 

Manana has also forbidden Doctors in the hospital from writing out prescriptions for AZT for rape survivors.
GRIP cannot provide the AZT without a doctor's prescription.
The AIDS Law Project (ALP)has reported this to the Law, Human Rights and Ethics Committee of the SA Medical Association and requested that they investigate the ethical dilemma which these doctors find themselves facing. 
Adult rape survivors who are able to walk can walk down the road to receive their AZT off the hospital premises. However the children are usually unable to walk and therefore cannot go off the premises for their ARV.
They are at a higher risk of seroconversion because of the damage to their genitals during the rape but cannot get free ARV from GRIP because of the prohibition on the doctors. 
When GRIP and the ALP raised this Manana said she would not grant a special dispensation for child rape survivors. 

Please support the GRIP and the doctors being charged by taking 5 mins to send letters, faxes or telephone messages to :
Ms Manana Tel: 27-13-755 3446 Fax:27-13-755 2564 or 755 3548 Postal address: P O Box 6312 Nelspruit South Africa 1200

Barbara Kenyon GRIP: kenyon@soft.co.za

Anita Kleinsmidt Attorney: AIDS Law Project Centre for Applied Legal Studies, Private Bag 3, PO Wits, 2050, SOUTH AFRICA
Tel: 011-717 8637 Fax: 011-403 2341
KleinsmidtA@law.wits.ac.za  Website: http://www.hri.ca/partners/alp
The AIDS Law Project is a partner organisation of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

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