Cape Town – Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has issued an apology to celebrity doctor Mmereka Ntshani, known as Dr Pashy, after she sent him a cease-and-desist letter regarding defamatory statements he made about her passport.
Motsoaledi had claimed in April that Dr Pashy provided conflicting accounts of how she lost her passport in 2019, but he now accepted that there were no conflicting versions in her affidavits.
Motsoaledi said the passport in question was the one which was still to expire in 2022 and was recently found in fellow celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana’s possession in Tanzania.
At a media briefing held in Pretoria on Monday, Motsoaledi apologised to Dr Pashy.
Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi on Dr Pashy’s passports being found with #DrNandipha @TheAgenda_SABC pic.twitter.com/ANon5vQTw3
— Aldrin Sampear (@AldrinSampear) April 14, 2023
“I therefore retract the above statements and subsequent words to that effect. I would like to extend my sincere apology to her in this regard. The statements were based on the information given to me at the time,” Motsoaledi said.
However, Motsoaledi said he stood fully by the statements he made that Dr Pashy’s two passports were found in possession of Magudumana in the United Republic of Tanzania.
“I would never apologise for those statements as they are true and were made in the public interest,” Motsoaledi said.
With regard to Magudumane’s passport, Motsoaledi said the department of home affairs had obtained legal advice that there were strong legal grounds to revoke her passport.
Motsoaledi said the department’s director-general will be taking due legal process steps in terms of the South African Passports and Travel Documents Act 4 of 1994 to revoke the passport issued to Magudumana on 16 February 2017 and due to expire on 15 February 2027.
Motsoaledi also confirmed that Thabo Bester, a convicted rapist and murderer, had been issued a South African identity card after an extensive investigation into his background.
Bester’s name has now been entered into the National Population Register, ending his status as an unidentifiable person, he said.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
