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Medico-Legal
CTN firm pays R600,000 to settle charge for overcharging
A Cape Town-based chemical firm has agreed to pay a settlement amount of R600,000 for allegedly charging excessive prices for hand sanitiser. A report...
East London doctor's defamation claim against EFF over COVID-19
Whether it is defamatory to say that medical doctor is ill with the coronavirus remains unresolved for the time being, following the striking from...
Brazil court orders publication of pandemic statistics
A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to resume publishing complete COVID-19 statistics after moves to suppress such information prompted accusations...
Clicks to appeal 'medicine factory' ruling
Clicks says it will appeal against the Western Cape High Court ruling that found it owns a drug-making facility, which is illegal for a...
California appeals court hears arguments in Roundup cancer case
A California Appeals Court has heard arguments in the first case that went to trial over allegations that Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup...
Medical scheme investment policy restriction lifted
Long-term insurers offering investment policies to medical schemes are now exempt from sub-regulation 4.2(1) of the 1998 Long-term Insurance Act – along with any...
Doctor on bail after being caught in Hawks' sick note sting
An East London medical doctor, arrested for allegedly selling a sick note to an undercover Hawks agent, was released on R3,000 bail by the...
Snubbed BAT joins court action to overturn SA cigarette ban
British American Tobacco (BAT) SA, the local division of the world’s second-largest cigarette producer, has joined an array of groups and companies trying to overturn...
Firm fined R76,000 in first contested masks price hikes case
The Competition Tribunal has found a Pretoria-based company guilty of hiking the prices of face masks. Babelegi Workwear and Industrial Supplies CC was fined...
Company disputes Competition Tribunal finding on sanitiser pricing
A Cape Town chemical company has been reported to the Competition Tribunal for excessive pricing on hand sanitiser during the COVID-19 disaster, reports TimesLIVE. The...
Illegal circumcision guilty plea was under 'non-existent Act'
An Eastern Cape man who admitted to performing an illegal circumcision has escaped a jail sentence – but only, reports TimesLIVE, if the prosecution does...
Cyber-attacks on global healthcare industry red-flagged
The CyberPeace Institute worked with world leaders to petition the UN to for greater prevention efforts against cyber-attacks plaguing the global healthcare industry during...
High Court scuppers Mkhize's plans for pre-emptive state quarantine
This week Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize again raised the possibility of compulsory state quarantine as a pre-emptive measure for those potentially at risk, in...
Eastern Cape health and labour departments slug it out over hospital closure
An unprecedented legal battle is looming after health and safety inspectors from the Labour Department shut down Frere Hospital in East London amid concerns...
J&J stops selling its iconic talc baby powder in North America
Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talcum-based baby powder in the US and Canada after being ordered to pay out billions of dollars in...
Parliament must address question of healthcare indemnity during COVID
Parliament has remained silent on any form of temporary legal indemnity for healthcare professionals in South Africa as a result of deaths due to...
New directive on handling COVID-19 mortal remains
A detailed ministerial directive on handling the mortal remains of people who succumb to COVID-19 infections in hospital and at home has been gazetted,...
Companies fined R1.5m for face mask gouging
Two more companies have agreed to jointly pay a R1.5m fine for excessive pricing of face masks during the COVID-19 outbreak, reports EWN. Sicuro...
Exceptions to cannabidiol regulations gazetted
On 23 May, 2019, the health minister published a notice in the Government Gazette that excluded certain preparations containing cannabidiol (CBD) from the operation...
Urgent application over Dlamini-Zuma's forced quarantine regulations
AfriForum has submitted an urgent application to the Gauteng High Count (Pretoria) to have Minister of Co-operative Government & Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s regulations...
CPS review: Prosecutions made under UK Coronavirus Act declared unlawful
All prosecutions made under the UK’s new Coronavirus Act that were reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service were found to be unlawful, including that...
Zimbabwean man charged for revealing woman's health status on WhatsApp
A Zimbabwean man has been charged for disclosing another person's COVID-19 positive status on social media. IoL reports that Jimmy Mhlanga is accused of...
Durban law group calls for an immediate end to 'fascist' lockdown
The Constitutional Lawyers for Democracy (CLD) have sent a letter of demand to President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for him to urgently lift the lockdown...
More pharmacies settle excessive pricing cases
Two Cape Town companies are among four firms across the country that have settled complaints of excessive pricing with the Competition Commission at the...
Outrage over Dis-Chem pricing on face masks 'not a legal test', argue its lawyers
“Outrage is not a legal test,” argued lawyers defending Dis-Chem and another firm from charges of excessive pricing, reports Business Day. The Competition Commission...
Call on UK equality watchdog to investigate BAME deaths
The mayor of London has called on the UK equality watchdog to urgently investigate whether the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people of black,...
Foreign-trained doctors' court action over HPCSA board exam
Doctors who studied overseas and who are allegedly being prevented from writing an exam that would allow them to practise, have turned to the...
Competition tribunal fines pharmacy group for price gouging on face masks
A pharmacy group accused of charging excessive prices for face masks and hand sanitisers at its Nelspruit and Pretoria branches has agreed to pay...
Medical schemes regulations amended in the light of COVID-19
Regulations under the 1998 Medical Schemes Act have been amended to provide for COVID-19 screening, clinically appropriate diagnostic tests, medication, medical management (including hospitalisation...
Draft nursing regulations released for comment
Draft regulations on the scope of nursing and midwifery practice have been gazetted for comment within one month. Possibly developed in anticipation of standardising...
Act amendment allows extension of expiring prescriptions from 6 to 12 months
People with expiring prescriptions, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, are set for some relief, says a Health24 report. In what appears to...
Internationally trained doctors threaten legal action against 'obstructive' HPCSA
Unemployed medical graduates who have obtained qualifications abroad have accused the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) and the National Health Department of deliberately...
Court bid to release group in state quarantine
AfriForum has filed an urgent application in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to secure the release of 107 people quarantined in a state facility....
UK advertising authority targets products with false medicinal claims
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is taking action against advertisers claiming that products which are not licensed medicines could have medicinal properties, with...
KZN’s forced quarantine threat retracted but legal action to proceed
Following the threat of legal action by AfriForum, the KwaZulu-Natal government has withdrawn the threat by Premier Sihle Zikalala that people who test positive...
Criminal offence to carry out traditional circumcision this winter
Any traditional circumcision and initiation this winter season will be regarded as a criminal offence that carries a fine, a prison sentence, or both....
UK to ban under-18s from surgery to change gender
UK children who wish to undergo surgery to change their gender will be banned from doing so in future, in terms of planned new...
Med scheme regulator relaxes rules to aid membership retention
The medical schemes regulator will temporarily relax rules to allow the industry to implement measures aimed at retaining members in the face of COVID-19,...
Liberty wins Vitality tug-of-war with Discovery
The High Court has dismissed a case from insurer Discovery against rival Liberty, who it had argued was infringing on its trademarks and competing...
Competition Tribunal appeals Mediclinic's North West hospital acquisition
The Competition Tribunal has asked the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal a ruling allowing Mediclinic to acquire hospitals in the North West, Business...