Basson returns to courts to rescue professional career

CARDIOLOGIST Dr Wouter Basson has returned to the Pretoria High Court to fight to save his professional career.

Basson wants the chairman who presided over the disciplinary hearing against him, Professor Jannie Hugo, and another committee member, Professor Eddie Mhlanga, to recuse themselves from proceedings.

According to Basson, the two were either biased or could be perceived to be.

He said Hugo, in particular, hadn’t disclosed that he was a member of the South African Medical Association (Sama), one of the bodies which called for Basson’s name to be removed from the roll of medical professions. If the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) did adhere to this demand and remove Basson as a medical professional, it would end his medical career.

Basson was found guilty of unprofessional conduct in December 2013. This followed a disciplinary hearing into complaints stemming from his activities in the early 1980s, when he headed the apartheid government’s chemical and biological warfare programme, dubbed Project Coast.

While evidence was being led regarding which sanction should be imposed on Basson, it came to light that some committee members had links with organisations which called for the highest punishment against him.

Several petitions were handed to the panel in aggravation of punishment, including Sama and the Rural Doctors Association of South Africa, which called for an end to his medical career.

As it emerged that two members of the panel were linked to these organisations, Basson turned to the high court earlier and was granted a stay of the disciplinary proceedings until he launched an application for the two members to recuse themselves.

They refused to withdraw from the hearing and Basson now again turned to the high court, asking Judge David Unterhalter to review that refusal.