Special Hearings — Health Sector Hearings — 1997-06-18

UNKNOWN: Thank you very much Chairperson, Councillors, thank you very much for giving us the privilege of being with you at this very important occasion in the last two days.  We are extremely concerned about the past and spending the whole day with you yesterday it was something which all of us have thought about very deeply before and do so now as well.  I am, as Dr Barker said, the Chairman of the Federal Council of the Medical Association.  I also have the privilege of being the president of the World Medical Association.
 MASA is a voluntary professional organisation of medical doctors. There are approximately 27 000 doctors registered with the interim National Medical and Dental Council at present, some 21 000 of these are practising doctors and 14 000 of them have chosen to voluntarily affiliate with the Medical Association of South Africa. The Association's mission is to empower doctors to bring health to the nation.  The association must certainly not be confused with the Interim Medical and Dental Council, a statutory body in place for the State to protect the community through licensing education and the maintenance of standards with disciplinary powers to act against doctors for unprofessional conduct.
 On the 24th of January 1996 following an international meeting on the caring of survivors of torture which took place in November 1995 which I've tendered on behalf of both MASA and WMA, the Secretary General of MASA wrote to the TRC as follows:
"MASA wishes you and the Commission every success in achieving your objectives. One tragic event was the death of Mr Steve Biko.  MASA does not have any specific new information.  However should it be required MASA will be pleased to cooperate in giving the Commission access to all records and documentation at our disposal, or make such available at your request".
 The first current collection of important documents surrounding  MASA and Human Rights was published in an article in the South African Medical Journal of September 1996.  Immediately following the publication MASA approached Miss L Louw, a master of Philosophy student with an honours degree in Psychology as its researcher. Ms Louw was given carte blanche to go through any of the MASA files and archives to gather any material related to human rights.  After four months she collected a substantial amount of documentation which was presented and is presented today in MASA's submission to the TRC. MASA members have been on both sides of the spectrum, some have been perpetrators of human rights violations and others have been victims.  Some have campaigned to advance human rights and others have been complacent.  The complete submission attempts to cover the role which MASA as an organisation played in Human Rights development. 
 Just briefly I want to mention the question of the World Medical Association and MASA and I want to refer to the visit of the World Medical Association to Somerset West last October and the opening address by Mr Thabo Mbeki, the Deputy President of South Africa.  He said,
"In June 1995 the Medical Association of South Africa adopted a resolution with unreserved apology to persons within and outside the Medical Profession who might in the past have been hurt or offended by any acts of omission or commission on its part in the past".
 In his statement the chairperson of the Federal Council of MASA mentioned some of the issues on which MASA has remained silent and had been insensitive and indifferent and went on to commit MASA to broadening access to quality health care for all the people in South Africa.  
 It was an important announcement and MASA deserves credit for having made it.  The point was also correctly made that the notion that it should be a beacon pointing the way to the completion of our transition, indeed much work remains to be done merely to deal with the legacy of the past. And that serves why we're here today.
 I'd like now with your permission to ask Dr Barker who's our main spokesman in the submission.  Thank you.