{"id":2051,"date":"2012-09-25T13:09:15","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T13:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2012-09-25T13:10:22","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T13:10:22","slug":"wouther-basson-hearing-postponed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=2051","title":{"rendered":"Wouter Basson hearing postponed"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2007\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2007\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/wouter-basson.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2007\" title=\"wouter-basson\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/wouter-basson-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/wouter-basson-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/wouter-basson.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2007\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Wouter Basson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cardiologist Dr Wouter Basson&#8217;s professional conduct hearing was postponed on Tuesday because presiding Judge Frikkie Eloff was ill.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The matter was being heard before the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) tribunal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A witness in the case, former surgeon general of the defence force Neil Knobel, who was scheduled to be cross-examined on Tuesday, could also not make it as he had open heart surgery earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Knobel gave evidence before the inquiry was postponed in March.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chairman of the inquiry, Prof Jannie Hugo, postponed the matter to December 6 and 7. Parties will hold a consultative meeting in October where the health of the two would be reviewed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Earlier, Basson&#8217;s defence counsel Jaap Cilliers suggested the matter be deferred until March next year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hugo indicated that a replacement for Judge Eloff would have to be found, if he is not ready to take up the matter in December.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said if a new adjudicator is brought on board, that person will be given time to become familiar with the long-running case.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Eloff was said to be suffering from pneumonia.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Basson faces four charges of unprofessional and unethical conduct.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The charges relate to his conduct as a medical doctor, when he headed the country&#8217;s chemical and biological warfare research programme for the defence force in the 1980s and early 1990s during the apartheid era.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He is accused of acting unethically in the 1980s by co-operating in the large-scale production of Mandrax and cocaine, and for &#8216;weaponising&#8217; teargas and supplying it to rebel leader Jonas Savimbi in the Angolan war.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He is also accused of acting unethically by providing disorientating substances for cross-border kidnappings and making cyanide capsules available for distribution to operatives for suicide purposes. &#8211; Sapa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardiologist Dr Wouter Basson&#8217;s professional conduct hearing was postponed on Tuesday because presiding Judge Frikkie Eloff was ill. The matter was being heard before the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) tribunal. A witness in the case, former surgeon general of the defence force Neil Knobel, who was scheduled to be cross-examined on Tuesday, could &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=2051\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Wouter Basson hearing postponed&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[331,1348,1347,1373,12250,1349,328],"class_list":["post-2051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-biological-warfare","tag-health-professionals-council-of-south-africa","tag-hpcsa","tag-judge-ferikkie-eloff","tag-south-africa","tag-steven-miles","tag-wouter-basson"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/wouter-basson.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2053,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions\/2053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}