MANANA SURRENDERS - Buks Viljoen
Lowvelder 3 MARCH 2003
NELSPRUIT - Mpumalanga`s controversial MEC for health, Ms Sibongile Manana has thrown in the towel.
After spending thousands and thousands of rand of tax payers’ money on legal costs to try and evict Grip (Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project) from provincial hospitals, Manana decided to withdraw the court case against them.
For the present, at any rate. With Manana`s past track record, and her dealings with Grip, it very often happened that she would at the last moment change her mind.
In a statement to Lowvelder, Manana said, "Due to the fact that Grip is prepared to interact willingly and positively with the department, we have deemed it prudent to withdraw the pending action at this stage with a view to the negotiations regarding the settlement of the whole dispute."
Grip has a support structure in place at some provincial hospitals where rape survivors receive counselling and treatment with antiretroviral medication free of charge, after their rape ordeal.
For more than three years the Department of Health, with Manana spearheading the onslaught, has been trying to get Grip kicked out of the hospitals from which they operate.
Grip is based at Themba and Rob Ferreira hospitals. So severe was the persecution of Grip that the former superintendent of Rob Ferreira Hospital, Dr Thys von Mollendorff was fired by Manana because he gave Grip permission to use room 33 at the hospital.
In her statement Manana said the decision to stop legal action followed protracted negotiations between her department and Grip. This statement was, however, rejected by Ms Anita Kleinschmidt of ALP (Aids Law Project), who acts on Grip’s behalf. "There have been no “protracted negotiations” between the Department of Health and Grip," she said last night.
Meetings were held this week between ALP and Manana`s legal team. "Possible conditions for settlement were discussed but none was agreed upon and we requested that these proposals be put in writing."
Before, however, such proposals were received and any settlement reached, Grip’s laywers were advised that the department would retract the case.
"The withdrawal is therefore not contingent upon any settlement as is incorrectly portrayed by the department’s announcement," Kleinschmidt said. "At this moment in time there is no settlement agreement in existence. The Aids Law Project has also not received a notice of withdrawal of the action in this matter."
Grip specifically denies that they have ever “acknowledged irregular occupation” of the care rooms as Manana suggested in her statement. "Grip has always maintained and still does, that its use of the care rooms on hospital premises is lawful," Kleinscmidt added.
Ms Barbara Kenyon, CEO of Grip, said last night that she was happy about the decision and trusted that this would at last result in the opening of victim empowerment rooms in every hospital in the province, in collaboration with the Department of Health.
