In South Africa Section 17 of the Health Professions Act (Act 56 of 1974) makes registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) a prerequisite to practice any health professions registrable in terms of the act, and practicing while not registered amounts to a criminal offense. 

The law is clear, however we have a large number of people who are able to operate as doctors without ever entering medical school or being registered with the HPCSA. In June 2023 alone the HPCSA and the police joined forces in a crackdown, searching for fake doctors around the country. 124 fake doctors were arrested, fake doctors practicing in health care, with real life sick patients who needed help. The HPCSA claims, unregistered persons evade these systems by working in the private sector where they either only accept cash payments or work in the practice of a registered doctor.

We are now faced with a real problem in South Africa, what happens if we bring a child to a fake doctor, what happens if it's an elderly parent, or Me or you?.  We simply cannot trust even doctors who we are supposed to have our lives in their hands. Whilst the crackdown in June brought forward and arrested 124 doctors, it seems they missed one who is currently trending. A doctor Matthew was left untouched, complaints have been raised with the HPCSA for a second time as the first public suspicions were raised in 2022. This year the university of Witswatertrand, Cambridge college and the HPCSA have denied this “doctor”. He never went to Wits to study medicine, he never went to Cambridge to study medicine and what's worse is that not even for a single day was he registered as a medical doctor with the HPCSA. 

This same doctor was supplying the public with pills, untested, unknown weight loss pills, he was invited to popular shows to give medical advice. There could be many other “Dr Matthew Lani” out there and we as the public need to know the HPCSA is doing something about this around the clock. 

Sign this petition and help demand that:

1.  There be stricter access control in hospitals specifically in Gauteng first.
2.  
   We also demand there be a major improvement on employee identification processes. Patients and hospitals should be able to easily verify and identify the doctors.