Information Act to get airing in highest court
Publish date: 28 June 2007
Issue Number: 1856
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Constitutional
The Promotion of Access to Information Act will come under scrutiny in the Constitutional Court through an application by a woman whose husband died at a Pretoria private hospital in 2002 to force the hospital to release a report which she believes would help her in instituting a claim against the hospital.
A Business Day report notes the woman succeeded in her Pretoria High Court application to get a report dealing with the conditions in the Unitas Hospital under the Promotion of Access to Information Act. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the High Court decision last year. The SCA noted in a separate judgment that one of the objects of the Promotion of Access to Information Act was to avoid litigation rather than propagate it. The widow, Maria van Wyk, wanted the report by Dr Gideon Naude, dated June 28 2002. She said the hospital contested and disputed its liability for the death of her husband and said it was clear that she would have to prove causal negligence on the part of the hospital in order to succeed. Full Business Day report
