By Gift Tlou and Bongani Nkosi
A Joburg bogus dentist has been caught – along with his accomplices – for operating a fake dental surgery for three years.
Officials from the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) and Honeydew police pounced on Effort Matanga Ncube, a Zimbabwean national, and his accomplices on Saturday during an inspection at Northview Shopping Centre in Northgate, where his bogus surgery, Northview Dentist, has been operating since 2017.
The authorities had received a tip-off from a community member prior to the operation.
Ncube allegedly offered a variety of dental procedures, and there were three patients waiting for consultation when authorities pounced on him and a gang of fake dentists he had hired. The surgery has since closed.
“He was arrested and detained at Honeydew police station. He appeared in court on Monday,” HPCSA spokesperson Fezile Sifunda said on Tuesday.
South Africa has been hard hit by several cases of doctors who have been arrested for operating without a licence. The HPCSA said at least 62 fake medical practitioners had been caught this year alone.
Last week, Kishule Prosper Bataciramwira was arrested in Kraaifontein, Cape Town, for working as a locum doctor at the surgery of a legitimate doctor.
“The team found Bataciramwira practising as a medical doctor and consulting with patients while not registered with the council.
“Bataciramwira was arrested and detained at the Kraaifontein SAPS,” the HPCSA said.
It indicated that the inspectorate’s offices throughout the country would continue to conduct random and planned operations with other law enforcement agencies to ensure that health-care professionals complied with the Health Professions Act.
In another matter, a botch-up by a magistrate has caused the setting aside of a five-year jail term meted out to an eMalahleni, Mpumalanga, obstetrician and gynaecologist found guilty of culpable homicide.
But it is not all sweet victory for Dr Danie van der Walt, accused of causing the death of Pamela Noni Daweti, who had just given birth.
The State charged, and maintained that it proved beyond reasonable doubt, that Daweti lost her life due to Van der Walt’s negligence.
The Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that while Van der Walt’s sentence should be set aside, the matter should be referred back to the National Prosecutions Authority for a decision on a fresh trial.
In a unanimous judgment penned by Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, the apex court upheld Van der Walt’s argument that the magistrate committed grave irregularities in his trial.
The irregularities rendered the trial, which was concluded in 2016, unfair.
The first irregularity was that the regional magistrate ruled on the admissibility of exhibits at the stage of deciding his guilt.
The second was that the magistrate partly relied on research she conducted in medical textbooks for her decision.
“The applicant’s conviction is not set aside on the merits.
“That is, it is not set aside on the basis that the applicant’s guilt was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Justice Madlanga.
“It is set aside on the basis that the regional magistrate committed irregularities whose nature was such that the applicant’s fair trial right was infringed.
“Justice requires that the matter be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mpumalanga, to decide whether the applicant should be re-arraigned.”