The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has been accused of dragging its heels in probing the case of the Stellenbosch doctor accused of abusing opioids and of negligent surgery that allegedly led to a patient’s death, reports News24.
A former receptionist has presented a syringe, said to have been used to administer pethidine, as alleged evidence that her ex-employer Dr Pieter Henning, the ‘TV doctor’ facing various charges, was abusing opioids – with DNA test results allegedly matching his.
Her complaint includes the results of the test she had sent to the HPCSA, which four months later has to conclude its probe into impairment allegations against the radiologist, and which she slammed for its tardiness.
Former receptionist Lizelma Kassteen, who worked for Henning at Keystone Radiology’s George practice, said she had retrieved, from a dustbin, pethidine ampoules and the needle she alleges was disposed of by Henning last year, which she subsequently had tested.
According to a report she commissioned, the DNA profile submitted by her for Henning and that of the needle are identical.
Henning, however, has denied Kassteen’s allegations, telling News24 they were “false, defamatory, and motivated by malice”.
In a letter sent to News24 by his attorney, Henning said the “purported DNA result” submitted by Kassteen without “a control sample, an unverified chain of custody and … independent scientific verification” cannot be relied upon as probative evidence, and that reportage on Kassteen’s “disputed biological material” runs the risk of “prejudicing the HPCSA process” that is currently under way.
Kassteen identified herself as the whistle-blower in the current case against Henning, originally reported by Mediclinic last year.
At the time, Henning had a commercial agreement with the hospital group, where he was a general manager until March 2025.
Keystone Radiology’s full exit from Mediclinic has, meanwhile, been finalised. It has since been renamed RadDx Radiology as part of a “reputational rebuilding” campaign after Henning’s once spotless image took a knock.
Gun-toting
The doctor, with a string of TV appearances to his credit, had appeared in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court after being charged with discharging a firearm in a public place in November.
He was allegedly found highly intoxicated with a gun and cash in his vehicle at Techno Park that night. He denied the prosecution’s claims that he was drunk, admitting only that he had consumed alcohol that evening.
He has yet to go on trial for shooting at the door of a vacant building: security officers who responded to a burglary alert had found evidence of multiple shots being fired.
Henning claimed his actions were driven by anxiety, claiming that the situation reminded him of close-quarter combat from his past as a military medical officer.
Bungled surgery
In addition to allegations of opioid abuse, an ICU nurse has also alleged that in 2023, he had performed a negligent medical procedure at Mooimed Private Hospital, Potchefstroom, that led to a patient’s death from severe internal bleeding.
Henning has previously denied responsibility for the Mooimed patient’s death. He has also repeatedly denied allegations of opioid abuse or any other substance and has previously supplied toxicology hair-follicle tests for the past four years, submitted in the course of separate civil proceedings, as proof.
The HPCSA probe into the allegations has yet to be concluded, and Kassteen has added her name to the list of complainants demanding intervention from the HPCSA. She claimed he self-administered pethidine, a Schedule 6 opioid, while on duty and immediately before performing invasive medical procedures.
Kassteen said she was the witness who reported to Mediclinic to having seen him in possession of pethidine ampoules at work, which she suspected he used in the bathroom before seeing patients.
She said she saw him with a bag “full of white polystyrene boxes of pethidine ampoules” in October last year.
“I chose to come forward to save my own reputation,” reads her complaint to the HPCSA, expounding that it was necessitated by Henning’s repeated denials of the claims against him.
Kassteen was the receptionist at Keystone Radiology from 2020 until its closure in December last year.
In October, she had retrieved a needle from the practice’s kitchen dustbin, which she described as his “first mistake by not throwing it in the medical waste bin, as regulated”.
She had a plastic bag over her hand so as not to contaminate the syringe, she claimed, and never took off the cap from the needle, which she charges contained Henning’s blood.
She further claimed that she had informed the HPCSA she had “physical evidence” against Henning, but that the watchdog had not contacted her or Mediclinic, which prompted her “to do everything on my own”.
Kassteen, in her complaint, said she contacted a pathology lab in April and had since received the findings that the fluids on the syringe matched a sample she supplied of Henning’s DNA.
She then forwarded the report to the HPCSA.
“I now insist that the HPCSA do their job by getting DNA from Dr Pieter Henning to prove … if he is innocent or not,” her complaint reads.
“This matter has been dragged out long enough since he appeared before the HPCSA on 29 and 30 January 2026.”
Henning, through his attorney, “categorically … denies every allegation”, and specifically denied the “alleged drug test results and the purported DNA evidence”.
“Our client further specifically denies that Ms Kassteen lawfully or validly collected any biological material attributable to him. The purported retrieval of a used needle from an office dustbin, without the knowledge or consent of our client, without any witnessed or documented chain of custody, and without any formal procedure for the preservation of integrity of the specimen, constitutes unlawful conduct that vitiates any evidentiary value the material might otherwise have had,” the letter said.
“The collection… and purported testing … in these circumstances was unauthorised and unlawful, absent the donor’s informed consent and in violation of the donor’s constitutional rights to privacy and bodily integrity.”
HPCSA spokesperson Priscilla Sekhonyana said the “information” from Kassteen would be “considered by the committee at its next meeting as part of the investigation”.
She told News24 the matter is on the agenda for a meeting scheduled for 28 and 29 May.
Four months after a two-day inquiry into the impairment allegations in January, the HPCSA has yet to make any findings. In March, Sekhonyana said the matter was still under investigation by the health committee, with a decision expected to be communicated at the beginning of April.
Two months later, this has yet to happen.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Stellenbosch doctor in opioid abuse inquiry now charged with gun violations
Embattled Stellenbosch doctor now faces charges over patient’s death