Bogus medical practitioners threaten the health of patients and undermine trust in doctors, but while the problem might be growing in South Africa, so too is the fight against it, writes Elna Schütz for Spotlight.
“If you’re in the hands of an unqualified person, you’re as good as dead,” said Dr Magome Masike, Registrar of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).
The controversy over bogus doctors gained widespread attention in late 2023 when it was discovered that ‘TikTok doctor’ Matthew Lani lied about being a medical doctor. In his videos, Lani was often seen in scrubs and wearing a stethoscope, impersonating a medical doctor.
Although he was arrested at Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg, the National Prosecuting Authority eventually decided not to prosecute.
The term “bogus doctor” has become a shorthand for any medical practitioner who is working without being properly qualified or registered by the HPCSA. In practice, being “bogus” can also apply to physiotherapists, interns, or anyone else practising medicine.
The misrepresentation may include using fraudulent certificates, using another practitioner’s registration, or being suspended or erased from the register. It can involve someone who studied but did not fully qualify, or has not kept up to date with their registration.
Masike gives the example of the child of a registered practitioner who decides to take on their parent’s practice after their death without themselves being registered.
It is an ongoing problem. This month, thanks to the HPCSA, a woman was arrested while working at a medical facility in Midrand, Johannesburg, without being correctly registered.
Bogus qualifications are part of the larger problem of healthcare fraud. According to research in a report by risk management services firm D-Finitive, this fraud overall costs African countries more than $50bn in 2012. In the South African private sector, that comes to about R22bn-28bn a year.
The report explains that beyond bogus practitioners, there is a problem with similar fraud, like doctors billing more clients than is realistic, manipulating diagnostic and procedural codes, or deceased doctors billing the government for decades after their death.
Often, this type of fraud is executed by syndicates.
“While most practitioners are honest and committed to patient care, it takes only a small number of bad actors, whether unregistered impostors or credentialed professionals abusing the system, to inflict widespread damage,” said Dr Katlego Mothudi, managing director of the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF).
A substantial problem
Masike said that from March 2024 to February 2025, 49 bogus practitioners were caught and arrested. From April to December 2025, there were 17. Even though these figures do not suggest a year-on-year increase, Masike said overall, the numbers are increasing.
The HPCSA’s annual report for 2024/2025 shows that 589 investigations into unregistered individuals were concluded in the year in question. Over the past five years, 3 708 complaints were received.
The majority of bogus practitioners who have been caught were operating in economic hubs of the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, Masike said. “Bogus people want money, so they go where there’s money,” he explained. However, while the trend tends to be urban, rural communities also fall prey to scammers.
A notable pattern is that many of these people use or forge the details of legitimately registered practitioners.
It is, of course, unclear how many unlicensed practitioners are still out there, not yet identified. “We can tell you the problem is bigger than we think,” Masike said.
It’s sector-wide and stretches across different professions, with most of of them in the private sector. Bogus doctors often work with a network of others, for example, those who supply unregistered or fake medicines.
Suspicious activity
Mothudi said that the problem was growing. “Medical schemes are seeing a rise in suspicious provider activity picked up through claims analysis and credential verification processes.”
This may include practitioners misrepresenting their registration status, practising outside their approved scope, or using the registration details of legitimate practitioners to submit claims.
Catching and prosecuting bogus practitioners is crucial because they can pose a direct danger to unsuspecting patients. “Unregistered doctors, like other health professionals, pose severe risks to patients, including serious physical harm, injury, and misdiagnosis which may lead to death, due to their lack of necessary training, ethical standards and relevant qualifications,” warned Foster Mohale, spokesperson for the National Department of Health.
Dr Zanele Bikitsha, national vice-chairperson of the South African Medical Association, cautioned that if bogus doctors are performing procedures, it was likely to be in settings that are not appropriate or sterile.
“They’re not going to go to a registered facility, because they know they’ll be caught, so this puts patients in danger as well.”
While some operate on a cash basis, Mothudi said that submitting claims to medical schemes was attractive because it allows for much larger and repeatable payouts.
“In some cases, bogus practitioners submit claims using stolen, borrowed or fraudulently obtained practice numbers belonging to legitimately registered healthcare professionals,” he sais. “In other instances, they collude with registered providers who allow their credentials to be misused in exchange for payment.”
Knowing the signs
While the HPCSA undertakes compliance inspections, there are some clear signs that might help the public spot a bogus practitioner. It is a legal requirement to have registration information easily visible in a practitioner’s practice and on the letterhead of documents or prescription notes.
A doctor’s credentials can also be checked: registered practitioners should be listed in the HPCSA’s digital register online. With as little as the practitioner’s surname, users can search for registered practitioners.
Complaints can be filed with the HPCSA’s Inspectorate, including anonymously: the call centre number is 012 338 9300/1 or e-mail office@hpcsa.co.za. Suspicious practitioners may also be reported to hospitals, the Department of Health, SAMA or other medical organisations.
Processing the problem
Complaints typically lead to an investigation by the HPCSA Inspectorate, working with other entities like the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), the Office of Health Standards Compliance, the Special Investigating Unit, and the SAPS.
Masike said the police recently assigned specific staff to focus on these cases, and that once the case goes to court, there was a conviction rate of around 77%. “Many of the cases from 2023 to 2025 remain before the courts, and therefore updated conviction statistics are not yet available.”
Practising medicine without proper training and registration is in contravention of Section 17(1) of the Health Professions Act, 56 of 1974. Typical sentences include fines – about R12 000 – or around two years’ imprisonment. In one 2017 case, a man who had treated almost 1 000 patients over six years was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by the Northwest High Court (Mahikeng).
Bikitsha said there are other systemic changes that could help catch the problem earlier on. “If you are still paper-based, you are at risk,” she said, adding that upgrading to biometrics and digital systems would decrease the risk of fraud.
Spotlight article – SA has a “bogus doctor” problem (Creative Commons Licence)
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How many more Matthew Lanis are dishing out fake medical advice?
Hospital ‘pulmonologist’ with two surgeries among 18 bogus doctor arrests