Joburg nurse charged with selling 'fake' Covid-19 certificates 'also had abortion pills'

The Parkhurst Clinic nurse who was bust at the weekend for allegedly selling fake Covid-19 negative certificates was also allegedly found with illegal medication.

TimesLIVE has reliably learnt that the medication was allegedly used to conduct unauthorised abortions.

Skhumbuzo Sdumo Manana appeared in court on Monday, charged with contravention of the Medicines Act as well as uttering. He also faces charges of fraud, corruption and possession of suspected stolen goods.

The 28-year-old made a brief appearance before the Booysen’s magistrate’s court where the matter was postponed to September 17. He was granted R3,000 bail and ordered to hand over his passport to the investigating officer.

The investigations against Manana are under way, with the prosecution team to apply to get access to his bank records.

Speaking to TimesLIVE ahead of the appearance, the spokesperson for the city of Johannesburg’s forensic and investigation services unit, Lucky Sindane, said Manana did not immediately have a job to return to as he had been suspended when internal disciplinary hearings were about to be instigated against him.

Manana was arrested in a sting operation at the weekend in which he was allegedly paid R500 to produce a negative Covid-19 certificate for a person he had not even tested.

The department was acting on a tip-off when it deployed an undercover operative to approach him and request the test. A legitimate test, conducted at a laboratory, usually costs about R850.

As of Monday, the city was going through its systems to check all the certificates Manana had issued.

“We will be checking if the certificates have samples and swabs. At this stage, we don’t know how many certificates he issued,” said Sindane.

TimesLIVE