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Medico-Legal
Life Esidimeni inquest: one nurse to 40 patients
The Life Esidimeni inquest has heard how mentally ill patients at one of their facilities had 15 nurses caring for about 600 patients, as...
Lawsuit to legalise cannabis filed in Namibia
Cannabis should be legalised in Namibia and people imprisoned for possessing dagga should be freed, two leading members of an organisation advocating the legalisation...
Phaahla urges criminal charges for fake news about vaccinations
People who spread fake news about COVID-19 vaccinations should face criminal charges, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said last week, according to a TimesLIVE report....
US court reverses order forcing hospital to treat patient with Ivermectin
An Ohio, USA, judge has reversed a court order that forced a local hospital to treat a COVID-19 patient with the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin,...
UK to increase storage limits for eggs, sperm and embryos to 55 years
Storage limits for eggs, sperm and embryos will be increased to a maximum of 55 years under government plans to give people greater choice...
Former National Health Laboratory Services CEO on R113m corruption charge
Joyce Mogale, the former CEO at the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS), appeared at the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Johannesburg this...
SIU: Mkhize ignored Cabinet resolutions; processes manipulated
Former Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize ignored a Cabinet decision that the government's communications agency would roll out National Health Insurance (NHI) communication projects,...
US doctor fired for 'offering mask exemption letters for students'
A Florida, USA, doctor has been removed from his hospital job amid reports that he offered parents medical letters to circumvent school mask requirements,...
Zuma and Military Health Service ‘very aggrieved’ over NPA-appointed examination
Former President Jacob Zuma is considering defying a KwaZulu-Natal High Court order that a National Prosecuting Authority-appointed doctor examine him to assess his ability...
SA vaginal mesh class action following landmark judgment
Following a landmark Australian judgment and successful litigation in Canada, the UK and USA, South African lawyers are launching a class action over the injury...
Forensic procedure Acts await presidential signature 5 years on
Two Acts that could bolster DNA sampling and expedite prosecution in the fight against rape and gender-based violence have been awaiting a presidential signature...
Major Zimbabwean union body challenges compulsory vaccinations
Zimbabwe's biggest workers’ union has taken the state and several firms to court for insisting that employees must be inoculated against COVID-19 before reporting...
Life Esidimeni deaths: ‘Not the fault of Health MEC’
Former Gauteng Health MEC Dorothy Qedani Mahlangu’s counsel argued this week that the Life Esidimeni deaths could not be attributed to her. Advocate Laurence...
EFF lays criminal charges over forced sterilisations
The EFF party has filed criminal charges against the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE).
A report in The Citizen...
SIU demands that Mkhize and family repay R4m
The Special Investigations Unit has accused former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize of “unlawful and improper conduct” and wants his family to repay R4m from...
US judge rules COVID patient must get Ivermectin
A US lawsuit may force an Ohio hospital to give one of its COVID patients Ivermectin, the anti-parasitic drug that has been embraced as...
Committee told that cannabis use Bill is ’racist and outdated’
A draft Bill providing for the private use and cultivation of cannabis has come under fire at Parliament. An EWN report notes that Parliament’s...
Judgment reserved in Vinpro application on liquor ban
Judgment in the Vinpro case against the government’s liquor ban restrictions within the Disaster Management Act (DMA) has been reserved.
Adjourning the case, Western Cape...
Dr Hoosen Haffejee’s 1978 injury ‘points to strangulation’
A pathology expert told the reopened inquest into the 1978 death of apartheid era dentist and activist Dr Hoosen Haffejee that there were at...
Assassination of whistleblowing Gauteng Health finance director
Babita Deokaran, the “exemplary” chief director of financial accounting at Gauteng Health and a witness in the Special Investigation Unit’s probe into R332m of...
Semenya: Correction to critical testosterone study raises appeal hopes
The legal representatives of South African athlete Caster Semenya believe that a recent correction to a critical testosterone study in the British Journal of...
Alcohol sales ban ‘requires national not provincial response’
The COVID-19 pandemic is a national disaster – and so it must be navigated at national level, the Western Cape High Court heard this...
COVID-19 no-fault compensation fund details still vague
Four months after the Health Department gazetted the establishment of the no-fault compensation fund, aimed at protecting citizens injured during the COVID-19 vaccination rollout,...
ConCourt reserves judgment on Tembisa Hospital cerebral palsy matter
The Constitutional Court reserved judgment last week on an application for leave to appeal a finding that negligent omission by medical staff at Tembisa...
Second set of fraud charges but Northern Cape Health official still working
The acting head of the Northern Cape Department of Health has been arrested for a second time this year for fraud and contraventions of...
Tobacco giant warns of economic impact for Botswana of new Bill
Botswana's tobacco sector says the Tobacco Control Bill, which has been passed by Parliament and is now awaiting the country’s president's stamp of approval,...
Limpopo might ban booze sales to unvaccinated people
Limpopo health MEC Phophi Ramathuba says the province is lobbying the alcohol industry to look at several proposals, including preventing unvaccinated people from buying...
Apartheid era dentist Dr Hoosen Haffejee ‘did not kill himself’ inquest hears
The third day of the inquest into the 1977 death of anti-apartheid activist and dentist Dr Hoosen Haffejee (26) saw three witnesses take the...
Infant bodies went missing from Health Dept's forensic pathology lab
Melice Jacobs, the Eastern Cape woman known as “Freezer Mom”, is now a free woman. A Daily Dispatch report says her charges of four...
Gauteng premier caused 'risk of harm' in massive PPE scandal
The lawyer representing former Gauteng Health CFO Kabelo Lehloenya has insisted that Premier David Makhura and his government introduced the risk of harm that...
UK equality laws could be changed to protect women in menopause
Changing equality legislation in the UK to protect women going through the menopause should “not be ruled” out, according to the chair of a...
Purdue boss: Family wants protection from OxyContin litigation
The former president and board chair of the company that makes OxyContin told a court last week that he, his family and the company...
British university makes COVID vaccine mandatory for students
A leading university has become the first in the UK to ban students from living on campus if they have not been vaccinated against...
UK MPs urged to ban ‘virginity repairʼ surgery and testing
The UK governmentʼs pledge to outlaw virginity testing will be undermined unless fake surgery touted as “virginity repair” is also banned, the Royal College...
Tribunal told that Gauteng premier Makhura failed to prevent PPE corruption
Gauteng's premier David Makhura is liable for more than R42.8m in alleged COVID-19 procurement corruption because he “failed to prevent officials of the Gauteng...
US Appeals Court reinstates nearly 6,000 surgical products liability lawsuits against 3M
The US Court of Appeals reinstated, this week, almost 6,000 products liability lawsuits filed against 3M relating to a surgical device that was meant...
Nurse in Germany suspected of replacing vaccines with saline solution
Authorities in northern Germany have appealed to 8,600 people to get another shot of COVID vaccine after a police investigation found that a Red...
National Health Laboratory CEO and supplier’s director in PPE fraud appearance
Two people accused of fraud and theft relating to the multimillion personal protective equipment tender at the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) appeared in...
Fresh call for Zimbabwe to outlaw child marriages
The Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR) has called upon the government to enact a child protection law that outlaws child marriage. This follows...
Despite Catholic majority, Spain wins right to medically assisted death
On 25 June, Spain became the fifth country in the world to legalise euthanasia, with a strict three-step evaluation that protects patients and doctors....