A Durban-based cardiologist has secured a ‘gagging order’ against Carte Blanche, stopping it from broadcasting a programme in which patients accuse him of medical malpractice for inserting stents unnecessarily, reports GroundUp.

Dr Ntando Duze was given multiple opportunities for more than a week to respond to the allegations raised by his patients, which were corroborated by independent experts. But instead of responding, he launched an urgent application in the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) on Friday.

He gave Carte Blanche only one day’s notice of the application. Carte Blanche opposed it, arguing that Duze wanted to ‘bury these allegations for as long as possible if not indefinitely’, and that he was seeking an ‘unlawful prior restraint on freedom of speech and media’.

But Acting Judge Mpumelelo Sibisi granted an interim interdict, stopping the broadcast which had been scheduled for 8 June.

Sibisi said Duze needed to be given an opportunity to file a replying affidavit and that Carte Blanche had put a ‘gun to his head’ to answer the questions posed to him.

The judge said it would be appropriate to interdict the broadcast until the matter could be properly ventilated. He set the return date for 13 June. But unless the matter is given a special allocation, it may not be argued and finalised on that day.

Duze, who runs his practice from Life Westville Hospital, initially cited two other cardiologists in his application, seeking orders that they must desist from making ‘slanderous, insulting and defamatory remarks’ about him.

He put this down to professional jealousy because their patients had moved over to his practice.

He alleged that the two cardiologists had instigated complaints laid by about seven of his patients against him with the Health Professionals Council of SA (HPCSA).

He claimed that such was the professional jealousy, that he had been a victim of ‘witchcraft’, with chicken bones and red (Hindu) strings being left in the operating theatre.

The cardiologists opposed the application. Then on Friday, Duze’s legal team withdrew the claim against the cardiologists, and tendered to pay their legal costs.

The lawyers gave no explanation for this. But it came in the wake of Carte Blanche, in its affidavit, saying they had not interviewed the cardiologists, according to GroundUp.

Instead, they had interviewed Duze’s aggrieved patients on camera and done follow-up investigations, including obtaining independent medical corroboration based on the patients’ medical records.

Duze, in his application, said at any given time he had an average of 50 patients at the hospital, all with heart conditions. He had never before been reported to the HPCSA and, if the allegations against him continued and were made public on Carte Blanche, it would severely harm his reputation, ‘and may even lead to my financial demise’.

In her opposing affidavit, Carte Blanche producer Mart-Marie Faure said the application was an ‘abuse of process’.

‘The complaints, which form the subject matter of the inset entitled “Dr Stent”, were initiated by his patients, who had all, they allege, been subjected to unnecessary surgical procedures. This has nothing to do with jealous colleagues. …’ .

Faure said she had engaged with Duze and his attorneys for nine days in an attempt to secure answers to her questions ‘to no avail’.

‘The HPCSA confirmed it received five complaints against the applicant. Life Healthcare has confirmed that it received information regarding allegations against the applicant from the HPCSA and has initiated an investigation.’

Full GroundUp report