Legally speaking, it’s not correct to say the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) hearing against Prof Tim Noakes was postponed or adjourned from June 4 until November 23.
The commencement of the hearing was delayed.
“You can’t postpone or adjourn a hearing that hasn’t even started,” says Johannesburg advocate Michael van der Nest SC, a member of Noakes’ legal team.
True enough, and it might sound like semantics, but it went to the heart of the legal process required for justice and fairness at the very least to be seen to be present at the start of a hearing.
In this case, the hearing couldn’t even get off the ground, because the Professional Conduct Committee the HPCSA had set up to hear the allegation of unprofessional conduct against Noakes, was not properly constituted in accordance with the applicable regulations and the provisions of the Health Professions Act.
One would have thought the HPCSA would have known that Noakes’ legal team would rightly object to a committee member sitting in judgement on Noakes when she belongs to the organisation that laid the charge of unprofessional conduct against him in the first place.
My bold, more on this story here
The commencement of the hearing was delayed.
“You can’t postpone or adjourn a hearing that hasn’t even started,” says Johannesburg advocate Michael van der Nest SC, a member of Noakes’ legal team.
True enough, and it might sound like semantics, but it went to the heart of the legal process required for justice and fairness at the very least to be seen to be present at the start of a hearing.
In this case, the hearing couldn’t even get off the ground, because the Professional Conduct Committee the HPCSA had set up to hear the allegation of unprofessional conduct against Noakes, was not properly constituted in accordance with the applicable regulations and the provisions of the Health Professions Act.
One would have thought the HPCSA would have known that Noakes’ legal team would rightly object to a committee member sitting in judgement on Noakes when she belongs to the organisation that laid the charge of unprofessional conduct against him in the first place.
My bold, more on this story here
I reckon it's a case of fit up thwarted.
Eddie
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