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Corruption is embedded in government culture. A Western Cape case study

 People are surprised by the ANC government’s corruption in the coronavirus personal protection equipment (PPE) contracts. It’s apparently unbelievable because it was not supposed to happen under alleged corruption-fighting President Cyril Ramphosa.

  Recently DA leader Helen Zille wrote of the  “criminal state”. Although she referred to the ANC, she’s correct corruption is an integral part of South African governance and state. It’s part of government officials’ culture and moral and ethical make-up whether they’re ANC or DA. 

 But despite her criticism of the ANC, she personally, DA and Western Cape government are no exception. As premier she was a party to regulatory capture. In another instance she pre-emptively defended WC Health Department officials including appointee Dr Beth Engelbrecht against alleged violations of national and provincial laws. She refused to investigate.

 In latest examples of Western Cape government malfeasance, concerning my late mother's case, Prof. Elmien Steyn, a Tygerberg Hospital and WC Health Department (WCHD) and Stellenbosch University Medical School employee and Health Professions Council inquiry committee member, allegedly influenced the committee’s proceedings into her book writing associate Groote Schuur Hospital and UCT Medical School professor Andrew Nicol and his co-accused. 

 The prima facie charges, including the death of a patient, were dismissed after a perfunctory hearing which didn’t follow the proper procedure and examine all evidence as laid down in the Health Professions Act.

  The HPCSA's registrar/CEO Dr Raymond Billa, Cape Town Director of Public Prosecution (NPA) and police refused to investigate the alleged corruption as defined in the Prevention of Corrupt Activities Act. 

 Ironically, they’re part of the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum Ramaphosa – a second irony – launched last October. At the time the Special Investigating Unit was investigating the HPCSA for corruption – money for medical licences. Ramaposter – the reluctant leader and imposter president – oversaw the launch of another anti-corruption task group whose members themselves are corrupt. No one – not police, NPA, state agencies or even media – wants to investigate.

  So when questions are asked what he and government are willing to do, there is the answer: corruption is part of the national culture. They’re not serious about corruption. They're part of the problem that’s as old as South Africa's democracy including in the Western Cape where Zille and DA governed.

A Western Cape case study

Groote Schuur Hospital and WCHD senior officials doctors Tunc Numanoglu, Alfredo Rossi, Mike Solomons, Peter Mitchell and David Bass shielded visiting British orthopaedic surgeon Christopher Hobbs after he negligently misdiagnosed a patient, me, resulting in a serious and permanent injury. 

 Per departmental procedure, complaints must be investigated and a report issued to the complainant within 21 days. But it took two months during which time they stalled, allowing Hobbs to leave the country. He continued working in the hospital in the interim when he and staff, including head of orthopaedic unit Solomons, pressured me to drop the complaint. It transpired Hobbs was not registered as a doctor with the HPCSA, a criminal offense which they knew or ought to have known. (The director of public prosecutions declined to prosecute saying it was “not a criminal matter” and it would be “unfair” on Hobbs [sic].)

 Dr David Bass, the WCHD's medico-legal head, lied to the health MEC that he had contacted me to try and resolve the matter. 

When I later sued the department and offered to settle for a much lower amount than my initial demand (I wasn’t motivated by money), he instructed state attorney Louis Gava to make an insulting final offer of R15 000 and “not a penny more”. I rejected it, more for his arrogant, fuck you attitude than anything.

 Gava told me Bass had taken my lawsuit personally. Why he did so is strange because it’s his job to professionally fend off dozens of medical malpractice lawsuits against the WCHD, which Engelbrecht called “touting” in the department’s annual report last year. As a matter of principle they defend irrespective of the merits, and arguably most of the claims are justified.

 I suspect it became personal because I reported him and his colluding colleagues to the MEC, head of department Dr Craig Househam, and HPCSA. He was a petty, duplicitous man. (Two years ago Beth Engelbrecht copied him in to our email communication regarding my mother's case but when I dismissed him as irrelevant, she didn't do so again.)

My lawsuit against WCHD was never resolved. It became complicated after my attorney, Robert Krautkramer of Millers Inc, salted the mineshaft and tried to force me to settle for a piddling R12 000. He told me it was their final offer when it wasn't, a serious ethical violation. 

He had permitted the WCHD to drag out the case for 18 months. He claimed Gava allegedly tricked him. He threatened me with a defamation lawsuit if I reported him to the Law Society. His competence was in question. From that point on I acted pro se while deciding what to do next.

 Two years later when I filed for a default judgement against WCHD after requesting my case's documents from Krautkramer (incidentally, a former colleague of Gava’s), which he did only after I threatened to report him to the Law Society, I discovered without my knowledge he had agreed with Gava I would not proceed with the case. He had no right and was in no position to make this commitment on my behalf because I had already accepted his resignation in writing after rejecting his pressure to settle. 

Gava knew early on Krautkramer was no longer my attorney, and if he accepted a deal with Krautkramer I would allegedly not proceed, he too was unethical particularly after it was clear they had allegedly colluded behind my back.

 I suspended legal action (I consulted another attorney but did not appoint them) when I realised the case was complicated because of the parties' malfeasance. And I was tired of it and wanted to move on. Had I proceeded, I would've spent hours and thousands of rands in legal bills untangling Krautkramer's mess and his and Gava's collusion. The combined costs of both sides was already near WCHD's offer. Gava filed a notice his client would defend. 

The Cape Law Society declined to investigate Krautkramer saying they don’t get involved in professional ethical issues (sic). 

They also dismissed a complaint against Gava but not before telling me he had a record of questionable conduct and encouraged me with the complaint. However, at the time a member of the society’s disciplinary committee was a senior member at the State Attorney, Gava’s employer. The Law Society denied there was a connection in dismissing my complaint. 

There a similarity with this case and that of Elmien Steyn and Andrew Nicol, proving the systemic corruption in government and of its officials.

The Law Society also declined to investigate the lawyer from UCT Legal Clinic who agreed to take my case before I approached Krautkramer. She had my file for one year without doing anything. When I complained, the society said she had done that type of thing before, but claimed she was untraceable. However, it took me one phone call to find where she worked, still in Cape Town in the society's jurisdiction.

The Western Cape and national government naturally refuses to take action against illegal conduct within their ranks, but one expects prosecuting and regulatory bodies like the HPCSA and Law Society would. They don't. Both the Hobbs and Nicol cases were “highly political”, and neither they, NPA nor SAPS will investigate senior government officials. It's political suicide.

So this blatant and insidious corruption is allowed to continue and is overlooked by agencies, politicians and media while hysteria is generated about corrupt contracts. South Africa is not descending into a criminal state, it's already there.



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