FROM PHARMAPACT


TO : Prof. J. Schlebusch

Registrar of Medicines

MEDICINES CONTROL COUNCIL

Dept. Of Health

Pretoria

BY URGENT FAX

25 March, 1997

 

Prof. Schlebusch

MEDICINES CONTROL COUNCIL TYRANNY & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINES CREDIBILITY CRISIS

Further to the serious personal issues raised in my Gaia Research Institute letter of 24 March, I also hold you personally to task for issues arising from my PHARMAPACT role as follows:

1) Your denial of my claim at the 1 November Pretoria meeting on Natural Health Substances, that the MCC had wasted a million-odd rands of the taxpayers money on harassing MSI and your purposely misleading claim that the MCC had received a final judicial victory over MSI, both warrant substantiation for the record. Your misinformation is all the more despicable in the light of MSI apparently having to wait several years before being granted an appeal hearing and even then not being afforded an opportunity to attend and argue their case.

As far as can be determined from my discussions with MSI and Dr Shisana, you, as Secretary of the Council, apparently concealed Council's humiliating and costly defeats in the Supreme Court, Appelate Division and office of the Chief Justice, from the D-G's and Minister's knowledge, to the extent of not allowing any of the foreoing to be reflected on the Department's official MSI file, which was recently, at my urging, evaluated independently by the D-G in order to assess the likely outcome of a planned multi-million rand suite by MSI for damages against the MCC and Ministry for said harassment and resultant financial losses.

I contend that you have a lot to answer for iro the foregoing and which circumstances deserve closer official and public scrutiny and appropriate disciplinary and possibly criminal action against those responsible.

You have until close of business on Thursday 27 March 1997 to set the record straight with me and iro which I reserve my rights.

2) I refer you to my 16 January letter to Councillor Dr P. Makhambene, who undertook to table it as an urgent late motion at Council's 17 January meeting. I subsequently contacted Dr Makhambene, who confirmed that it had been tabled and advised me that you would be conveying Council's resolution to me.

Given the serious and urgent nature of the issue, I hardly think that the more than two months (15 months as from Mid- April 97. Ed.) that has lapsed constitutes a reasonable delay in replying, if indeed you ever intended doing so, especially considering that this absurd pretence of democratic representativeness has proceeded to even more absurd depths, with the selectively publicised 1 March meeting of the so-called broad reference group drawing only 30 attendees, inclusive of mere observers, whereas 100 active participants were expected and catered for, hardly a show of enthusiastic and representative support for a system supposedly instigated and approved by the role-players.

By all accounts, it's organisers, the O'Brien/ HPA Executive clique, which represents those companies that already enjoy the lion's share of the market, yet represent but a fraction of all the role-players interests, as expected, dominate not only the CMC, but also the sub-committees and all have vested pecuniary interests and hence my criticisms of these sub-structures are essentially the same as those recorded against the CMC and iro which former I hereby formally register my protest that matters should be allowed by the MCC to degenerate to the depths that they have at present.

You now have until close of business Thursday 27 March 97 to furnish me by telephonically confirmed fax, with not only Council's resolutions iro my letter, but also a transcript of the full discussion at that meeting, so that I may reasonably comprehend just how Council reached it's apparent decision to ignore my valid objections and approve this insult to the intelligence and sense of fairplay of our members, who constitute a legitimate segment of the constituency that the seriously compromised CMC will lord over as an illegitimate personally vested interest extention of the MCC's jurisdiction over the pro-active means to natural health.

I also concurrently request sight of written confirmation that the Minister has in terms of Section 9 of Act 101/65, approved the appointment of the CMC and in terms of such appointment what precisely are the mandate and constraints of said committee.

The speed, thoroughness and content of your response within the necessarily imposed time constraints will have a significant bearing on the ultimate courses of action taken, and in this regard we reserve our rights.

Yours sincerely

STUART THOMSON, National co-ordinator, PHARMAPACT

cc The Minister of Health

cc The Director-General, Dept. of Health

cc The Public Protector.


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