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Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize.
- The government does not have a policy to sterilize HIV-positive women.
- An investigation by the Commission for Gender Equality found incidents of this practice in KZN and Gauteng.
- The health department is investigating and taking steps to prevent it from happening.
No government policy will allow the forced sterilization of any woman, for any reason, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.
Mkhize reported at a joint meeting of the portfolio committees for health and women, youth and people with disabilities on the forced sterilization of women living with HIV / AIDS in South Africa.
The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) published a report on the matter in February, following an investigation motivated by a complaint it received in 2015.
The commission had taken samples from 15 hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, where most of the complaints were filed.
The commission’s report concluded that the practice was “cruel, tortuous or inhuman and degrading treatment.”
He said that the complainants’ right to quality and not to be discriminated against had been violated, as well as their right to dignity, physical integrity and freedom and security over their bodies.
In addition, the practice violated the right to the highest attainable health standards, including their sexual and reproductive rights, the commission added.
It also found that the complainants were not provided with adequate knowledge about the sterilization procedure before asking for their consent, thus violating their right to information.
READ | Health department to investigate ‘forced’ sterilizations of women living with HIV
Mkhize told the committees that his department is taking the matter seriously.
“There is no policy in the department that allows any woman to be forcibly sterilized for any reason,” she said.
He said this would only happen in rare and extreme life-saving interventions.
Mkhize said:
There is no policy in the department that allows any woman to be forcibly sterilized for any reason.
The commission’s report did not give them “something that is concrete,” Mkhize said.
He added that it was a “difficult investigation” and that some of the allegations contained in the report date back to “many years ago” and his records are not subsequently available.
“As a government, we will be at the forefront to ensure that if there is any violation of human rights, there will be redress,” Mkhize said.
Health Department Director General Sandile Buthelezi said Mkhize wrote to the CGE on Aug. 19 to request that more information related to the whistleblowers be made available so that the department could work on implementing the recommendations.
During the same period, and after obtaining the names of the 18 whose complaints were investigated by the CGE, the minister wrote to all the general directors of the affected hospitals to make available all hospital records and patient files related to the victims , directly to your office, “he said.
Of those 18 complainants, nine patient files were located, three of the patients’ names were in the hospital admission registry, and six of the complainants could not be located through the hospital admission registry and patient files.
Mkhize has assembled a task force, led by gynecologist professor Motshedisi Sebitloane, to:
- Interrogate the patient files that had been obtained;
- Review the medical history of patients;
- Check if the consent forms have been signed;
- When a consent form was signed, ask if it was medically reasonable and justified for these patients to be sterilized; Y
- Identify the physicians and healthcare workers who participated in the procedure.
The department has also reviewed their consent forms; the experts have approved it.
The forms are being translated into all national languages.
A standard form will now be used throughout the country.
A standard operating procedure is being developed to be followed by all public health facilities for sterilization procedures.
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