DA lays charge against Qunta
01/10/2007 15:52  - (SA)  

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Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance has laid a charge against SABC board deputy chair Christine Qunta of contravening provisions of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act.

The charge was laid at Cape Town Central police station on Monday by the DA's Mike Waters.

The charges relate to Qunta's association with a product "which is being touted as a cure for Aids to desperate HIV-positive people in South Africa", he said.

"People like Ms Qunta, who associate themselves in untested products for which impossible claims are made, are profiteering from South Africa's tragic Aids epidemic instead of taking constructive action to reduce infections and help those infected.

MCC 'refused to act'

"The appropriate authorities, and in particular the Medicines Control Council, refuse to act.

"Therefore the Democratic Alliance is obliged to take action itself to ensure that the law is applied," Waters said.

During recent interviews for a new SABC board, it was disclosed that Qunta was the director of a company called Comforter's Healing Gift (Pty) Ltd.

"The products this company makes have not been properly tested. No clinical trials have yet been conducted on them.

"There is no proof whatsoever that it has any ability to fight off HIV, let alone eliminate it.

"Yet claims have been made by a co-director of this company that the product is able to cure Aids," Waters said.

'grossly unethical and exploitative'

Selling and marketing the substance was not only illegal, but "grossly unethical and exploitative".

The Medicines Act made it absolutely clear that no-one could associate themselves in any way with the promotion of an untested medical product.

Although Qunta had not directly associated herself with the product, as a director of the company, the section of the medicines Act which made it illegal to "authorise direct or allow a sale of" a medical product should apply.

"Her high public profile has given this company and its products a level of exposure that would never have been possible without her intervention and therefore she must be held accountable for her association with it," Waters said.

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