NEWSPAPER FINGERED IN MANTO ROW

Ok, so forgive me if I have somewhat lost the plot here! If memory serves me correctly, Manto made a huge song and dance about using state and government facilities when she was in hospital! So why would she have been in a Medi-clinic, which to my knowledge is a private hospital!

Is it perhaps because she has no faith in the Government hospitals and/or staff - or is it because once she had made it clear that she only uses Goverment institutions, she felt confident enough to scuttle across to a private clinic or perhaps she no longer has faith in her own department!

Whatever it is, surely that should also be investigated - clearly she is not eating enough beetroot and garlic and lemon juice to keep her healthy and fit!

Newspaper fingered in Manto row
August 15 2007 at 05:37AM
By Political Bureau

Cape Town Medi-Clinic, claiming that Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's medical records have disappeared from its secured archives, on Tuesday laid a charge of theft against the Sunday Times at the Cape Town central police station. Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya on Tuesday night told the Cape Times he was not aware of the theft charges. "I don't know about the charges, but I can state categorically that we did not steal anything," Makhanya said. The Cape Times has learned that Tshabalala-Msimang's office asked the hospital to furnish her with her medical records. The records are at the centre of a Sunday Times report that alleged that Tshabalala-Msimang abused her position to demand alcohol be smuggled to her while she was at the hospital two years ago.

The hospital authorities apparently called the minister's office on Tuesday to say it had checked its archives and found that "everything on her has been removed". Patients' files are transferred to the deep archives once they leave the hospital. Strict security rules regulate hospital employees and others who want to access these files. The files are said to have been kept in a "highly secured area". However, a source said on Tuesday that the hard copy files - detailing Tshabalala-Msimang's records during her stay at the hospital two years ago - had been removed and the back-up electronic version had been deleted "irretrievably". "It is not clear what date the files were removed," a source said.

This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on August 15, 2007