Despite protestations of being “untouchable”, Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba will face a misconduct inquiry with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) this week, after the Gauteng High Court slapped down her application for leave to appeal against an earlier finding that the procedure should not continue.
The judge has also ordered her to pay the costs for this second application.
Last month, her urgent court bid to interdict the HPCSA from going ahead with the inquiry – related to her remarks to a foreign patient last year, which went viral on social media – was turned down by Judge Anthony Millar.
Pretoria News reports that the MEC turned to the court at the time to urgently stop the hearing scheduled for this week (25-27 July). She wanted this order, pending a later application, to overturn the HPCSA’s decision.
Dissatisfied with the judge’s ruling against her, Ramathuba last week asked Millar for leave to appeal against his earlier judgment.
But he said there are no prospects that another court would come to a different conclusion from his, and that Ramathuba did not advance any compelling reason for the granting of leave to appeal.
He also, once again, ordered her to foot the legal bill for this application.
Ramathuba had said in her application that as MEC, she did not fall under the jurisdiction of the HPCSA. But the judge said she “simply has no right, let alone a prima facie right”, to avoid the jurisdiction of the HPCSA in circumstances where she has maintained her registration as a doctor under the Health Professions Act.
She had said the watchdog body over the medical profession could not touch her, as it “lacks jurisdiction over her as a member of the executive arm of government”.
The judge said the HPCSA was the custodian of the medical profession, and “the guardian of the public interest insofar as the public is affected by the conduct of members of the profession”.
Thus, he said, like any other medical professional registered with the HPCSA, she had to face the music.
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Limpopo Health MEC loses bid to stop HPCSA inquiry
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