Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng vs. Health Professions Council of South Africa & Others (Case No. 2026-087809)
By Hassen Lorgat
Outside the court, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng claimed a well-deserved victory in her struggle against the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). “Today, I declare victory against imperialism and Zionism,” she said.
image mad med graphic
The victory was modestly couched and signed before a judge on 9 September 2026. It reads simply: The parties have agreed to set aside the HPCSA and their disciplinary committee’s finding of unprofessional conduct against Dr Mofokeng – it is as if that decision never happened.
The First Medical Committee’s finding (September 2025) that Dr Mofokeng was guilty of unprofessional conduct for “using inappropriate language on social media” – and the R10,000 fine – are reviewed and set aside (cancelled).
In addition, it is noted that all subsequent steps are void. The court rules that there are no grounds to continue investigating or prosecuting the complaint. Simply put: the original complaint lodged by the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) in March 2025 is formally dismissed. Each party will pay their own costs.
Whilst this looks like a cold medical-legal examination by a judge, its implications for pro-Palestine activists like Dr Mofokeng, also known as Dr T, have wide implications worldwide. It also marks the beginning of a long-overdue process of transformation for an institution that still has to get out its colonial and apartheid roots.
However, when you read Zionist propagandists (commentators, influencers and even some publications), they sought to deflect the victory of Dr Tlaleng and her supporters. Some of it is obscure, but I will try to decipher it as follows. They argue the case as follows:
- The Health Professionals Council refused to defend their own ruling.
- The dramatic reversal apparently followed the intervention from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), whose Director-General, Zane Dangor, advised the HPCSA that Dr Mofokeng enjoyed immunity from legal process. (This information was contained in a letter to the SAZF dated 7 June 2026, after the portfolio committee hearing that I talk about below.)
- Zane Dangor is targeted and presented as being against the government’s trend towards “toenadering” with Zionism.
- Another person, consistently defined as “student activist” Kamohelo Chauke in an Op-ed on 8 September in Business Day suggested that the public law firm Section27 were wrong to represent an EFF mayoral candidate.
The above are mere attempts to distract the public from the merits of the case but vitally important also to undermine the continuous struggles in the media, the portfolio committee and elsewhere to expose the role of the HPCSA and bowing to complaints of the SA Zionist Federation.
Let me take you back a bit, so that we can understand the story from the beginning.
The Complainants
The SAZF – South African Zionist Federation – was the complainant in this matter. Formed in 1898, it is the umbrella body for the SAJBD and other pro-Israel groups in South Africa, including the SA Friends of Israel. Its mandate states that it “looks after matters relating to Israel and its image in South Africa.”
In January 2025, after Netanyahu announced a brief delay in the Gaza ceasefire, the SAZF complained to both the UN and the HPCSA about a post by Dr Mofokeng. On 19 January, she had responded to an Al Jazeera report on the delay with: “F*ck him” (since deleted). The SAZF complaint also cited a reply she made to UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, who had pressured the UN to act against her: “You white man. Evil scum. Voetsek.”
I have previously argued that it is profoundly ironic that the SAZF complained to the HPCSA about Netanyahu’s “dignity” being wounded by a private “FU” post. Yet media outlets that parroted the SAZF’s press release – notably the Sunday World – failed to extend Dr Mofokeng the same courtesy, refusing to interview her for her side of the story.
Section27 legal team
This is the height of a scandalous double standard. The HPCSA appeared willing to pursue a South African UN Special Rapporteur for political commentary, while refusing to entertain complaints from healthcare professionals calling on it to condemn the genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, Netanyahu – a fugitive from international justice – was protected by the same body.
UN Watch and Spying on UN Officials
The complaint against Dr T originated from UN Watch, a body that Spinwatch has described as an Israeli government front organisation. UN Watch has a history of targeting UN rapporteurs. It falsely claimed that Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, called Israel “the common enemy of humanity” in a video. The video was later proven to have been maliciously edited, but by then the damage was done.
Rapporteurs like Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng and Francesca Albanese have long complained about Zionist pressure on the UN. In August 2025, Drop Site News published an explosive piece under the headline:
“For Your Eyes Only”: Israel’s Mole Inside the United Nations”. It deals with hacked emails from Ron Prosor, Israel’s former UN ambassador, showing that he gave Israeli diplomats advance warning about UN investigations. One email was marked: “For your eyes only. Do not forward.” This gave Israel a head start to lobby against UN initiatives, including the 2014 Gaza inquiry. A UN oversight body is now investigating whether other UN staff were involved.
This context matters because it shows how easily some media and public bodies were co-opted. The UN itself was slow to defend Dr Mofokeng—a sign of the pressure it faces from the Global Right and Zionist interests.
The SAZF’s Role in Institutional Capture?
At home, the agent was the mother body of Zionist organisations, the SAZF.
They lodged the complaint with the Health Professionals Council and were excited when the body fined Dr Tlaleng. They celebrated this in a press release:“HPCSA Sanctions UN Special Rapporteur Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng for Unprofessional Conduct”
The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) obviously welcomed the ruling that she was “guilty of unprofessional conduct for using abusive and inappropriate language on social media and for bringing the medical profession into disrepute.”
The Gullible Press?
In their media release, the SAZF tells us that it was reported by News24, Ynet News, and the South African Jewish Report as a serious breach of professionalism and decorum. They ignored to mention that Sunday World – the subject of my complaint – was basically a cut and paste from the press release, as I argued in my submission to the Press Council, which ruled against me at the first hurdle as well as the appeal before Judge Bernard Ngoepe.
In brief, my complaint against the Sunday World was about my right to be in solidarity with Dr Mofokeng (Dr T), that she was not given a right to say her piece in a story about her, and that this was primarily a job in favour of a Zionist body and not journalism. They ignored the basic argument made by many – EFF, Health Workers 4 Palestine – that Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng was on UN duty and not working as a medical doctor. Dr T’s comments were made in a personal capacity regarding Benjamin Netanyahu, an individual currently subject to an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes.
Picture: Dr T after the victory
The HPCSA on its Knees
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is the prime body in South Africa regulating the conduct of health professionals. It oversees 12 professional boards with total active practitioner registrations exceeding 180,000 health professionals nationwide. It was formed as a statutory body under Section 2 of the Health Professions Act, 56 of 1974, replacing the previous South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC), which had operated since 1928. The outside charging of Wouter Basson is undoubtedly its most political case.
The complaint was made by the SAZF soon after the FU Netanyahu statement in January 2025. In April 2025, she was informed in Washington that a formal complaint was lodged against her.
On 11 September 2025, the HPCSA’s First Medical and Dental Committee of Preliminary Inquiry officially met to consider the SAZF’s submission. They resolved that there was evidence of unprofessional conduct under Regulation 4(9). Less than a month later, on 16 October 2025, it issued its official ruling letter, fining her R10,000 for bringing the medical profession into disrepute.
Dr Mofokeng, represented by the public interest law centre SECTION27, strongly rejected the ruling, maintaining that her personal political commentary does not compromise her clinical integrity. She subsequently approached the High Court to review and set aside the HPCSA’s decision.
Her view was consistent: as a UN Special Rapporteur, Dr Mofokeng is entitled to privileges and immunities to allow her to perform her functions independently and without intimidation, in terms of Article VI, Section 22 of the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, which protects UN experts from any legal or administrative interference for acts performed in their official capacity. Any action by a global or domestic institution that seeks to penalise her for her official opinions or statements constitutes a breach of international law.
Many others saw this intervention as being politically motivated, and representing a dangerous precedent for professional regulation in South Africa. They argued that the HPCSA’s statutory mandate, under the Health Professions Act 56 of 1974, is to protect the public and guide the medical professions in matters of ethical practice and patient care. It is not an instrument for policing political expression or punishing doctors for exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of conscience, belief, and expression.
So What is the Significance of This Ruling?
The biggest loser is the SA Zionist Federation. To look at how hard they fell we must go back to the celebratory press release. It was dated October 2025, where they pointed out that given Dr T’s employment at the United Nations, “this ruling carries particular significance” as the “UN Code of Conduct requires Special Rapporteurs to maintain restraint, integrity, and impartiality in their public communications, standards she blatantly ignored.”
They further pointed out that Dr Mofokeng’s “public conduct also reflects a broader pattern of bias and hostility among certain UN officials” to Israel, and they cited South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, “where serious concerns have been raised about the impartiality of UN-sourced reports.” She, “like other individuals entrusted with global human-rights mandates, is abusing their positions to advance partisan, defamatory, or discriminatory agendas.”
Those Who Must Eat Humble Pie
The Sunday World too must eat humble pie for running a plainly one-sided story about Dr T. My case before the Press Council was rejected on a technicality because I did not get a mandate from her. But I did not want a mandate to be in solidarity. The paper subsequently denied me/us an article on the grounds that I had lost the case. The Ombud Franz Kruger, in dismissing the case on “standing”, noted: “It is also clear that her rights have potentially been infringed.”
Thirdly, this matter I believe was won not in the judicial court but in the Portfolio Committee on Health, particularly the 26 March 2026 hearing where, in particular, EFF MP Hon Naledi Chirwa-Mpungose, supported by others Kgotsi Letlape and at times the health ministers, called out the HPCSA during the Portfolio Committee on Health over its handling of the case. The 6-hour hearing was hot. It was a real grilling of the HPCSA. For me, listening to the proceedings live – it was becoming very clear to me that the HPCSA was going to lose this case.
Finally, this matter was won in the court of public opinion. I, amongst thousands of others, never got the sense that swearing at Netanyahu was a bad thing. It was thus clear that the public did not support the SAZF’s complaint against the good doctor.
Whereas the Zionist Federation thought they could weaponise SA’s prime institution dealing with health in favour of genocide denial, it has been forced to democratise the institution. This is long overdue, and people like Dr T and others must see the reforms go deeper, and they can start by reading her final report, which was released under the heading: A Compendium on Medicide: A Sub-text to Reproductive Genocide – A Public Health Crisis.
In Closing
This is our victory—and a warning to those who seek to abuse our institutions, such as the HPCSA, which was established to regulate the conduct of doctors and healthcare workers. Those who do so will face the consequences.
It is also a victory for those who regard ‘FU Netanyahu’ as a minimal act of outrage against the genocide that has killed thousands and injured many more. A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet Global Health estimates that 75,200 people died violently in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and January 5, 2025. Other reports indicate that an estimated 8,000 to over 10,000 additional people are missing and presumed buried under the rubble.
The SAZF, the HPCSA, and the sycophantic news media that parroted their lies must all eat humble pie.
Hassen Lorgat