MEDIA RELEASE
Embargo: Immediate release Enquiries: Doctors For Life Int.
Date: 30 October 2020 Telephone: 032 481 5550
After three years of stalling, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) on 6 October 2020 “withdrew” the remaining charges against Dr Jacques de Vos. Dr De Vos was charged with unprofessional conduct after allegedly advising a woman that her 19-week old unborn baby is a human being.
Adv Keith Matthee SC, who represents Dr De Vos, argued that it is not possible in law to withdraw charges after Dr De Vos entered a plea in December 2019. Dr De Vos is entitled to an acquittal (or a conviction). Lawyers for Dr De Vos wrote to the HPCSA to request that the hearing continue so that Dr De Vos can be heard and that it can be decided whether he acted unprofessionally or not.
This was also not the first time that the HPCSA “withdrew” charges in the three years that it delayed the case against the pro-life doctor. In 2018 the HPCSA “withdrew” the charges only to reinstate it again. The real reason why the HPCSA is unable to proceed with the hearing is that the so-called “complainant” never submitted a complaint to the HPCSA. Instead, a clear paper trail points to two doctors (Drs Van Wyk and Ismail) at 2 Military Hospital who drove their personal vendetta against Dr De Vos for not agreeing to their worldview justifying abortion.
Doctors For Life has called on the HPCSA to charge Drs Van Wyk and Ismail with gross unprofessional conduct for abusing their powers to achieve their own ideological goals.
Despite requests to the HPCSA to set a date to proceed with Dr De Vos’ matter, no response has been received except the chairperson who indicated he has no powers to make arrangements for a hearing to take place. Doctors for Life and Dr De Vos has now instructed their lawyers to launch an application in the North Gauteng High Court to compel the HPCSA to set the matter down for hearing, and to ask for a personal costs order against the HPCSA, and/or against individuals at the HPCSA in their personal capacities given the vexatious and malicious conduct of the persons responsible, and the ongoing and extreme prejudice this conduct is causing Dr De Vos.
For more information, contact Doctors For Life International at 032 481 5550 or [email protected]