Disgraced Cape Town gynaecologist Ganes Anil Ramdhin, who has been suspended from the Health Professions Council of SA three times and struck off the British medical register, has been granted a postponement after pausing proceedings during his plea explanation in his two latest cases, both related to malpractice.
This means his initial guilty pleas in both cases, in which the patients died, fall away until further notice.
Women’s Legal Centre attorney Khuliso Managa, representing the family of late South African actress Zoleka Helesi, said last week: “He pleaded guilty to both of the charges initially. When the plea explanation was being read, however, they paused, and his council identified various issues. All witnesses were present …it was unclear why these concerns hadn’t been clarified beforehand. It was meant to move from this process to the next stage, which is sentencing.”
TimesLIVE reports that Ramdhin pleaded at the hearing last week to both charges against him, one being a malpractice case in the death of Helesi and another in the death of Beauty Mama.
Helesi’s friend, Baxter Theatre head Lara Foot, who is the plaintiff in her case, said she had all but given up hope after three previous attempts at a hearing with the HPCSA collapsed. She was disappointed that the fourth one seemed to move nearer to “closure for the family” but then saw another postponement.
Ramdhin diagnosed Helesi with cervical cancer and performed an abdominal hysterectomy in 2021. Doctors supporting the allegation of malpractice alleged that surgery in such a case would have been strongly contra-indicated.
Sepsis set in and Helesi died a few weeks later.
On the latest postponement, Ramdhin said: “Proceedings started but I did not accept the guilty plea and it was not confirmed. I intend to defend the allegations and will lead evidence and cross-examine the witnesses.”
He said because of the postponement, it was “inaccurate to state that I have pleaded guilty”.
For the family of Mama, the nightmare is not yet over. She died in 2020, aged 46, after a surgical procedure the family sold their home to pay for.
Ramdhin’s lawyers were granted a postponement of the hearing into both charges until the end of May.
In the years before Helesi’s and Mama’s deaths, Ramdhin had been placed on the register of the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK but was later found to have misled the panel about proven cases of fraud in South Africa.
He returned to South Africa after being struck from the UK register, the British report saying his “persistent dishonesty”, “flagrant disregard for his responsibilities to patients” and “excuses” for his conduct meant he could no longer work as a registered doctor in that country.
He was previously found guilty of 10 cases of medical aid fraud in KwaZulu-Natal.
He once practised under the name Anirudhra but over the course of his career had it changed to Ramdhin.
In South Africa, he was suspended from the register in 1991 after a criminal conviction of assault. He was also suspended in 2000 and 2002 for “unprofessional conduct” and twice incurred fines for misrepresenting himself and diverting public patients to his private practice.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Fresh criticism of ‘dysfunctional’ HPCSA after Ramdhin debacle
HPCSA misconduct hearing for doctor with previous charges, suspensions
New charges for thrice-suspended Cape doctor