Africa-Press – South-Africa. Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has apologised for his passport statements about celebrity doctor Mmereka Ntshani, better known as Dr Pashy.
Motsoaledi’s apology comes after Ntshani sent him a cease-and-desist letter requesting him to withdraw “all defamatory statements and utterances” made against her.
Ntshani also demanded the retraction of his comments and a public apology.
In April, during a media briefing, Motsoaledi said Ntshani had given contradictory versions of how she had lost her passport in 2019.
Ntshani’s two passports were apparently found in fellow celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana’s possession when she and her partner, convicted rapist and murderer Thabo Bester, were arrested in Tanzania.
Ntshani said Motsoaledi’s remarks had defamed her.
But during a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday, Motsoaledi said that he “accepted” that Ntshani did not depose an affidavit when she applied for a passport in 2019 and that there are “no conflicting versions in the affidavits deposed by her this year”.
He said:
However, Motsoaledi said he fully stood by his statements that Ntshani’s two passports were found in possession of Magudumana in Tanzania.
“I would never apologise for those statements as they are true and were made in the public interest,” he said.
Sentebale Makara, director at Norton Rose Fulbright law firm, told News24 that he was waiting to receive instructions from Ntshani before commenting.
During the same briefing on Monday, Motsoaledi also confirmed that Bester had officially been issued with a South African identity card following an extensive investigation into his past.
He said the department also interviewed his mother, Meisie Maria Mabaso, reviewing birth records of Bester at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and data stored in the DHA systems.
He said Bester was issued the ID on 17 May 2023.
“His name has now been entered into National Population Register, thus ending many years of his status as an unidentifiable person,” the minister said.
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