Anti-abortion doctor hearing adjourned
THE DISCIPLINARY hearing in the matter of anti-abortion doctor Jacques de Vos by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has been adjourned until April 2.
This latest postponement came after HPCSA prosecutor Zolile Gajana took issue with the Disciplinary Council’s setting aside of two of the four charges against De Vos.
Gajana said: “It’s my considered view as well as that of my superiors, that we’ll take that decision under review.” This means the proceedings will have to wait until Gajana takes the case to a judge who will assess the lawfulness of the Disciplinary Council’s decision.
Gajana said by dropping the two charges, the disciplinary committee had reviewed the decision of the preliminary committee of the HPSCA and the matter should not proceed any further until the decision had been appraised by a judge of the High Court.
In the meantime, De Vos’s advocate, Keith Matthee, asked the disciplinary council to allow his client to plead. Matthee said the HPCSA had not yet complied with the August 30 ruling of the Disciplinary Committee which ordered them to provide information needed for De Vos to plead.
De Vos pleaded “not guilty” on the two remaining charges: of dissuading a patient from terminating her pregnancy in 2016 when he was at 2 Military Hospital in Wynberg, Cape Town and the second charge, of failing to respect the patient’s autonomy.
Matthee said his client was entering the plea on the assumption that the patient was 19/20 weeks pregnant and also that it was a different doctor who eventually carried out the abortion by medical induction.
Disciplinary committee chairperson Andre Swart said as a result of the prosecutor failing to provide all the required information to the defence, he wondered whether there was any bad faith on the part of the HPCSA. However De Vos waived his right to claim that the HPCSA were acting in bad faith, to proceed with the hearing.