FORMER health minister had been admitted to hospital and might need a second liver transplant, newspapers reported yesterday.
A panel of experts at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg was expected to hear representations on whether she would qualify for a second transplant, City Press reported.
It is unusual for patients to be granted a second transplant.
Tshabalala-Msimang was admitted to Folateng, the private wing of Charlotte Maxexe Academic Hospital in Johannesburg, the hospital confirmed yesterday.
City Press said doctors are conducting tests to determine whether the liver she received two-and-a-half years ago is being rejected by her body.
She has apparently been in hospital for two weeks, and the newspaper said she had undergone one medical procedure.
Fidel Hadebe, a spokesman for the Department of Health, said yesterday he could not speak on behalf of a former minister.
Tshabalala-Msimang served in the Presidency under former president , and after April she reverted to being an MP.
Tshabalala-Msimang’s first stay in hospital, in 2007, was marked by controversy when the Sunday Times wrote that her cirrhosis of the liver was alcohol- induced. The paper claimed she had continued drinking after receiving the new liver. It also said she had been convicted of stealing from a patient when she was a nurse in Botswana.
African National Congress spokesman Brian Sokutu said yesterday: “We ... have learnt of the news of her illness and wish her a speedy recovery.”
Sokutu said Tshabalala- Msimang had played an important role in the movement, most recently as a member of the task team looking into the case of athlete Caster Semenya, who was subjected to gender testing.
But her role as health minister coincided with a period of HIV/AIDS denialism in government policy. She earned the nickname “Dr Beetroot” for urging HIV-positive patients to eat beetroot, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice to stay healthy. She clashed with the Treatment Action Campaign , which accused her and the government of an inadequate response to the pandemic. Last year, the campaign celebrated a court ruling that Matthias Rath, who claimed his vitamin product could cure AIDS, was acting illegally.
newmarchj@bdfm.co.za