The charge against Professor Tim Noakes is "laughable" and the Health Professions Council of SA's hearing into his professional conduct should have been over in hours with the charge dismissed. This is according to Jacques Rousseau, a lecturer in critical thinking and ethics at the University of Cape Town and a critic of Noakes, who attended Noakes's hearing yesterday.Noakes is being accused by the Association for Dietetics in South Africa of unprofessional conduct after he provided "unconventional advice on breast-fed babies on social networks".Last year Noakes on Twitter advised a mother to wean her child on a low-carb, high-fat diet.He has pleaded not guilty."It (the hearing and charge) misunderstands social media and overreads the significance of the tweet," said Rousseau."My impression of the hearing today was that the HPCSA team is incompetent and floundering. It gives Noakes the opportunity to again demonstrate his grasp of PR."The hearing got off to a slow start, with arguments about whether witnesses could testify via live video streaming and whether the first witness was an "expert" or "factual" witness .A stellar legal team is defending Noakes - and it is doing it for free.Noakes, who has sold more than 200 000 copies of his high-fat, low-carb book, The Real Meal Revolution, says he would never have afforded the legal fees."The case would have collapsed. I would have had to withdraw," he said on the sidelines of the hearing yesterday.Some members of his defence team are Banters themselves.Noakes claimed his beliefs had cost him dearly but he vowed to continue his fight."South Africans have got to hear the truth... I incurred enormous costs, financial costs and other costs, because I believe so strongly that this message has to get out, and that is why I am here," said Noakes.He said he was optimistic about the case and that he had scientific proof to back the diet."I finally get the chance to present the evidence because I am not invited to present this evidence to the scientific community. I don't get invited to talk at conferences about this topic and you have to ask yourself, why?"Registered dietician Tabitha Hume, who is following the hearing, commented: "The most important thing ... is that people are made aware that Noakes's diet is based on the extrapolation of results from different bodies of research. It's not necessarily sound research but rather convincingly and charismatically put together."As dieticians we never said the diet didn't work but we are concerned there is a lack of peer reviewed research directly relating to the diet. And we're worried about the long-term effects of the diet. He never talks about the long-term negative effects of the diet on the body - he probably doesn't know what they are."..