Alarm over fake Limpopo doctor
The arrest of alleged fake doctor in Limpopo has raised fears that the medical profession has been infiltrated by more impostors.
|||Johannesburg - The arrest of Nigerian man who allegedly used fake qualifications to practice as a “doctor” in Polokwane in Limpopo for years, has raised fears the medical profession in South Africa may have been infiltrated by many more impostors.
Anton Nwuafor allegedly used fake qualifications to find a job as a doctor at a Limpopo government hospital.
On Monday the Nigerian national appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate Court on charges of fraud, corruption and violation of South African immigration laws.
According to the charge sheet, Nwuafor was in South Africa illegally and had fake qualifications. He was operating in Pretoria at the time of his arrest on Friday, November 6.
The state prosecutor told the court that the state would oppose bail, because the accused was in the country illegally and didn’t have a proper address.
Reacting to Nwuafor’s court appearance, Dr Sizeka Maweya of the South African Medical Association (Sama) warned the problem was widespread.
Maweya said: “The Health Professional council is failing us, now we vet those foreign doctors from countries such as Nigeria personally, but the problem is that we don’t have capacity, but now Sama (South African Medical Association) has said ‘let us be the ones who vet them, because we understand the trade’.”
Maweya said Sama had in the past helped the health department to remove two Nigerian “doctors” suspected of using fake qualifications from the Musina hospital and in Waterberg, also in Limpopo.
Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba put the blame on Health Professional Council officials for failing to properly vet these “doctors”.
However, she said the department was monitoring recruitment processes with a view to closing loopholes in their system that had been exploited by imposters posing as doctors.
“Most of these foreign doctors know nothing, even some nurses are better than this foreign doctors,” Maweya claimed.
Maweya said that nurses played a crucial role in the detection of fake doctors as they often noticed irregularities during operations.
A group of ANC Women’s League members from Moroke near Burgersfort where Nwuafor is alleged to have left trail of victim also came to the court on Monday.
They travelled for more than 100 kilometres to understand how they were duped to understand that Nwuafor was a legitimate doctor who had served them for years.
Last week, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the vetting body was dysfunctional and unable to operate effectively.
Maweya said that the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and the North West were also vulnerable to the fake doctors trend.
Ramathuba said the provincial government was disappointed in the systems that authenticated doctors. She said while the province was not involved in vetting doctors, they were “at the receiving end”.
Ramathuba said a process aimed at strengthening the vetting processes around the appointments of doctors was under way.
Maweya said in some cases dropouts from foreign medical institutions sought to manipulate the local system in order to join the profession in South Africa.
Maweya said Sama had exposed a medical student who had been practicing as a doctor.
Commenting on doctors from Cuba, Maweya said: “With those ones, the problem is very minimal, we only realised [later] that they have skills deficits and when they are here they work under supervision for a certain period.”
“The skills gap is a challenge as their training and our training are bit different,” added Maweya.
Nwuafor was back in court Wednesday for a bail hearing.
African News Agency
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