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Senior hospital official to fights for rights

A labour lawyer on Tuesday said his client was unfairly dismissed by the Mpumalanga provinces' health minister over the supply of free AIDS drugs. Local health minister, Sibongile Manana, dismissed former superintendent Dr Thys von Mollendorff in November 2001 for supporting the free supply of antiretrovirals by AIDS activists at the Rob Ferreira hospital. Instructing lawyer Eric Louw, said Manana had accused von Mollendorff and the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (GRIP) of trying to poison rural black women. "Our case will appear before the Public Service Bargaining Council next Monday. There is a good chance that my client will be reinstated," Louw told the UN news service PlusNews. South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said the case against Von Mollendorff was "an extreme version of intimidation" by the health ministry.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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