RuDASA supports
Dr Colin Pfaff and Dr Mark Blaylock

In February 2008 Dr Colin Pfaff was informed that he would be charged with misconduct for not seeking adequate permission to provide dual-therapy to prevent HIV transmission from pregnant women to their unborn babies.

Following some derogatory comments that the MEC for Health, Mrs. Peggy Nkonyeni allegedly made regarding rural doctors in response to being asked about the charge against Dr Colin Pfaff, Dr Mark Blaylock put a picture of the MEC in a bin, for which he then was charged with misconduct.

The MEC for Health continued to make derogatory and inflamatory statements in public, including during her budget speech in the provincial legislature. The charges against Colin Pfaff and Mark Blaylock were dropped following a massive outcry. The Department of Health set up two seperate investigations to explore the issue. The reports of the investigations have remained confidential and the MEC has refused to release the reports. It seems however that they did not find any substantial wrong-doing by the doctors concerned.

In response to the actions of the MEC for Health, RuDASA together with the Treatment Action Campaign and the SA HIV CIinician Society have challenged Mrs. Nkonyeni to withdraw the charges and to apologize for her actionis. RuDASA, the TAC and the SAHIVCS have also requested the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate the matter and to facilitate a resolution to the ongoing conflict.

Please find links below to:

• Media Statement in February regarding the charge against Colin Pfaff
• Petition for Colin Pfaff
• Open Letter to Dr Zweli Mkhize to intervene in the conflict
• Opinion piece regarding ‘Rural Doctors and their MEC’s'