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Thursday, 16 October, 2025

FOCUS: HEALTH GOVERNANCE

Gauteng Health boss first casualty in Tembisa fraud crackdown

Venilla Yoganathan - 0
Heads are starting to roll in Gauteng, with Department of Health & Wellness boss Lesiba Arnold Malotana suspended this week, and the seizure of multi-million rand luxury assets suspected to be proceeds of fraud against Tembisa Hospital, writes MedicalBrief. Malotana's suspension with immediate effect on Tuesday and the raid on luxury properties  follows a Special Investigating Unit report into rampant corruption and theft at Tembisa hospital. Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced the suspension and said he had appointed Dr Darion Barclay as acting HoD,...
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NEWS UPDATE

R2bn funding for South Africa as US backtracks on cuts

South Africa will receive R2bn over six months from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to sustain existing HIV and Aids programmes. TimesLIVE reports that the announcement was made by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Tuesday during the national roundtable on Lenacapavir access and sustainability in South Africa. Motsoaledi said the news came “all the way from Washington”, adding the US had decided to reconsider the recent funding cuts through a new mechanism referred to as a “transitional period”. “This is to keep the programmes that were there so that they don’t collapse. The US said they are giving...

Pharmacists allowed to dispense ARVs, appeal court rules

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed, with costs, an appeal by a doctor’s organisation, the IPA Foundation, aimed at stopping specially trained pharmacists from treating people with HIV and TB, writes Tania Broughton for GroundUp. The IPA first took its dispute with the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria). In 2023, Judge Elmarie van der Schyff ruled in favour of the pharmacists, giving a judicial go-ahead for the council to introduce its Pharmacy-Initiated Management of Antiretroviral Treatment (PIMART) initiative. However, the IPA Foundation, determined to have the initiative set aside, took this ruling on...

SAHPRA grants Mounjaro jab approval for weight loss

Aspen Pharmacare has received approval from the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) for the diabetes treatment drug Mounjaro (tirzepatide) as a chronic weight management treatment, effective from this month, it has announced. Aspen launched Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro in December 2024 to treat type 2 diabetes in SA, and the latest SAHPRA green light is for a new indication for the once-weekly prescription treatment as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for chronic weight management, reports BusinessLIVE. Aspen said the KwikPen-pre-filled injection marks a new level of ease and accessibility for those requiring regular administration of the...

Health tender challenge exposes extent of deceit

Efforts by major players in the Gauteng tender scandals to plunder state resources knew no bounds, with well-planned ruses designed to extract money while camouflaging their trails. In one such example, Oupa Brown Mogotsi, linked to suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, played agent provocateur in court action to overturn the award of a lucrative North West Health catering tender after Hangwani Morgan Maumela’s shell company lost out, reports News24. On 15 September 2023, the Brown Mogotsi Foundation launched an interdict application before the North West High Court (Mahikeng) to stay a four-year catering deal for 11 major health facilities in the...

R360m SAPS health contract to be re-advertised

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola told Parliament’s ad hoc committee last week that he’d cancelled the R360m Medicare24 Tshwane District contract in April, after an internal audit that flagged poor performance, bid fronting and serious procurement irregularities. The lucrative three-year deal, signed n June last year, was for the provision of “health risk management” services to the SAPS. Masemola said the contract has not yet been re-awarded, but a re-advertisement process will start after a forensic audit is finalised in October/November, reports IOL. He testified that the multi-million-rand deal had followed the usual procurement chain, including specification, bid evaluation and adjudication, and was ultimately...

Lifestyle diseases bring down SA life expectancy

Non-communicable diseases are reversing decades of progress in HIV/Aids treatment in South Africa, with statistics released this weekend showing that contrary to global trends, life expectancy in this country was worse in 2023 than two decades earlier, reports BusinessLIVE. Life expectancy in SA dropped to 66.55 years in 2023 compared with 67.73 in 1990, according to The Lancet’s Global Burden of Disease study, launched on Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin. Yet global life expectancy increased by almost a decade over this period, rising from 64.64 years in 1990 to 73.84 in 2023. “SA’s health trajectory has been uniquely shaped...

Doctor to cough up for dismissing staffer (72) on WhatsApp

A judge has ordered a KwaZulu-Natal doctor to compensate her former employee R120 000 for an age-related dismissal conducted via a WhatsApp message, reports IOL. Leonie Lemmer (72) was employed as a practice manager at a clinic operated by Dr Niresha Mudaly, and while on her annual leave in August 2022, received a WhatsApp message from her boss recommending she retire – and not return to work after her leave. “Leonie, didn’t get a chance to chat to you … it’s been hectic. The practice has grown, and I will be extending the hours to a Saturday as well...I strongly recommend...

Interdict bid against Operation Dudula dismissed over lack of urgency

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has accused the government of failing to act against the vigilante groups that prevent non-nationals and undocumented individuals from accessing public healthcare facilities across the country. This follows a KwaZulu-Natal High Court (Durban) decision last Friday to strike the HRC’s urgent application off the roll, which sought to stop the groups – Operation Dudula and March and March – from unlawfully blocking migrants any access to public hospitals like Addington, reports IOL. In striking the matter off, the court ruled it was not urgent. Operation Dudula and March and March have consistently accused the government of failing...

Questions after NHLS audit procurement flaws flagged

Weak controls, expired contracts and irregular expenditure have yet again been linked to  the Department of Health and its entities, according to the Auditor-General of South Africa (Agsa). In a briefing to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health last week, Agsa officials said more than R9.7bn in contracts at the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) had escaped full audit scrutiny. Nelisiwe Mhlongo, deputy business unit leader at Agsa, told MPs the Department of Health had disclosed more than R5.3m in irregular expenditure that was still under assessment, reports TimesLIVE. She said the department had paid invoices before receipt of goods and services, which...

Rethink of ‘shaken baby’ diagnosis in death row father's case

A Texas court has issued a stay of execution for Robert Roberson, a man whose 2003 murder conviction has raised serious questions about the validity of “shaken baby syndrome” as a medical diagnosis, reports Al Jazeera. Last Thursday’s decision arrived with only a week remaining until Roberson’s scheduled execution date today (16 October). Roberson, a 58-year-old autistic man, was accused of having killed his two-year-old daughter Nikki Michelle Curtis in January 2002, after he took her to a hospital emergency room unconscious. He has maintained that Nikki had been sick and and fallen from her bed overnight. But prosecutors argued that her...

African babies take a lesson from US soldiers in malaria war

For years, the US military has treated uniforms with insecticide to repel mosquitoes and the malaria they can transmit – and American infectious disease specialist Ross Boyce says he used to wear one before becoming a physician and malaria researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He told NPR that he’d wondered if babies could get similar protection, not from a uniform but by treating the baby wraps that many mothers in sub-Saharan Africa use to carry their little ones. “It seems sort of an obvious thing to do,” he said, especially given the risk: nearly every minute,...

Harvard liable for theft of body parts from morgue

A court in the United States has ruled that Harvard can be sued by families who had donated bodies of relatives to the university’s medical school, which were then sold on the black market by a former manager of its morgue. Al Jazeera reports that last week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed a ruling from a lower court that until now, had shielded the university from legal action. The court also ruled that Mark Cicchetti, the MD of the Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gift Programme, is legally liable. In his ruling, Chief Justice Scott Kafker described the case as a “macabre...

Indian firm to buy chunk of pharma giant Adcock

India-listed Natco Pharma has been given the green light to buy a significant stake in Adcock Ingram, with the South African company’s shareholders voting in favour of a deal, reports BusinessTech. Four months ago Natco Pharma, which specialises in R&D, manufacturing, marketing finished dosage formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients, had offered R75 per share to buy out JSE-listed Adcock Ingram’s minority shareholders. Adcock operates, manufactures, markets and distributes various healthcare products, including Panado, Allergex and Myprodol. Anchor Capital Equity Analyst Sean Culverwell told BusinessTech the offer would end Adcock’s long spell in “minority purgatory”. “Since Bidvest took control of the company in 2019 (via...

Dis-Chem changes boost investor confidence

A new phase of maturity is anticipated for Dis-Chem with its ongoing leadership transition, with experts predicting that the changes could help reignite investor confidence if the company sharpens its execution, according to MP9 Asset Management chief investment officer Aheesh Singh. Singh told BusinessLIVE the founders’ gradual handover of control, including the resignation of Saul Saltzman as executive director and earlier leadership changes within the Saltzman family, marks a natural evolution for the business. “The founders built Dis-Chem, but new leadership brings structure. If they keep the culture intact while improving execution, investor confidence will increase,” he said. Last Tuesday, the company...

Anti-Semitic Facebook posts gets surgeon struck off

An NHS surgeon who posted anti-Semitic comments online after the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war has been struck off the roll, reports The Telegraph. Dr Manoj Sen had made offensive posts against Jewish people on Facebook shortly after the 7 October attacks, and when screenshots were sent to the police, he was arrested and later issued a caution. He subsequently left his job after 45 years in the profession and has been struck off the medical register. At the time, he was working as a surgeon at Northwick Park Hospital in London, having previously been a lecturer at Imperial College London. Comments were...

MEDICO-LEGAL

Doctor to cough up for dismissing staffer (72) on WhatsApp

A judge has ordered a KwaZulu-Natal doctor to compensate her former employee R120 000 for an age-related dismissal conducted via a WhatsApp message, reports IOL. Leonie Lemmer (72) was employed as a practice manager at a clinic operated by Dr Niresha Mudaly, and while on her annual leave in August 2022, received a WhatsApp message from her boss recommending she retire – and not return to work after her leave. “Leonie, didn’t get a chance to chat to you … it’s been hectic. The practice has grown, and I will be extending the hours to a Saturday as well...I strongly recommend...

HPCSA opposes sexual misconduct doctor’s ban appeal

The High Court has reserved judgment after an endocrinologist, who was permanently struck from the medical roll in July after being found guilty for a second time of sexually assaulting patients, pleaded for his ban to be lifted pending his appeal. However, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) told the Gauteng High Court it would be “derelict in its duty to protect the public” if disgraced Dr Gregory Arthur Hough (53) were allowed to return to work while appealing his lifetime ban, reports News24. He has approached the High Court with an urgent application to suspend the sanction, pending...

Limpopo mother wins damages after surgery on son’s wrong leg

A Limpopo mother has successfully sued the provincial Health MEC for damages after an orthopaedic surgeon operated on her eight-year-old son – but on the wrong knee, which has now been permanently damaged, and with the original problem on the other knee remaining uncorrected, reports The Mercury. The mother said she had initially been relieved when her child came out of surgery at Lebowakgomo Hospital, as she believed that the problem related to his left knee would finally be resolved. However, she discovered that the doctors had actually operated on his right knee – which had no problems. She told the Limpopo...

SOME RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN THE PAST WEEK

GASTROENTEROLOGY

One diet drink daily may raise risk of liver disease – Chinese study

A single daily can of a sugary or artificially sweetened drink may increase the risk of developing metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), according to a major study. Presented at...

NEUROLOGY

Quitting smoking stubs out dementia risk – London study

British researchers have found that giving up smoking in middle age not only halves the rate of decline in verbal fluency and slows memory loss by 20% but can...

PAEDIATRICS

‘Alarming’ rise of superbugs in newborn babies – Australian study

The war against drug-resistant microbes is not going very well, warned scientists after a recent study on escalating antibiotic resistance and “superbugs” affecting newborn babies in Southeast Asia, and...

PAIN MEDICINE

Tramadol offers limited relief, risks serious side effects – Danish review

The strong opioid painkiller tramadol is not that effective at easing chronic pain for which it's widely prescribed, finds a pooled data analysis of the available research, led by...

UROLOGY

Male circumcision simplified with South African device – US study

Voluntary medical male circumcision is one of the most important ways to reduce new HIV infections. The foreskin contains receptors that the HIV virus can attach to, and removing...

ABOUT US

MedicalBrief is Africa’s authoritative weekly digest of medical matters, both on the continent and around the world. It brings you a succinct summary of the latest developments, both in news and research, with links to the original material. Contact us: info@medicalbrief.co.za

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