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Eastern Cape judges refer damning ruling to NPA to consider prosecution

Eastern Cape judges refer damning medical negligence ruling to National Director of Public Prosecutions to consider prosecution.

Nandos, Netflix, a coastal home and a Porsche – these are some of the items lawyer Barnabas Xulu is alleged to have paid for with a R20 million payment the fisheries department now wants back.

Medico-legal claims in the public sector have been sharply increasing since at least 2014, with provincial health departments cumulatively facing (mostly medico-legal) claims of R105.8-billion in 2019/20, against a budget of R222.6-billion.  What to do about these claims — which debilitate health system financing since they indicate the extent and human impact of negligence in the system — has been the subject of investigation by the SA Law Reform Commission, statements by past and present health ministers and a number of court cases.  A recent case adds to the jurisprudence on the issu...

The matter stems from Xulu’s multimillion-rand fee dispute with the department. Last January, the high court found BXI had unlawfully been paid about R20 million in legal fees by the department and ordered he repay it by 30 April. It was found by Judge Owen Rogers that BXI had received the payments for work done based on invalid writs of execution and notices of attachment, as the department was entitled to free legal advice from the state attorney. Rogers also found that the court’s writs of execution were not checked for compliance with the State Liability Act – the act governing wor...