Health Cheques For ‘GP'
Noseweek|February 2019

‘Kind and loving’ con-doctor has been at it for years, while HPCSA dismissed a 2012 complaint

Health Cheques For ‘GP'

ROGUE DOCTOR AND CONMAN Johann Anton van Rooyen (nose231) has been up to his tricks for many years, it emerges, judging from responses to the story about how he exploited 82-year-old Cape Town woman Marguerite Harness-Wood.

But Van Rooyen, who was struck off the roll by the HPCSA in 2017 for unprofessional conduct after using his doctor/patient relationship in another case to enrich himself, is clearly an old hand at the game.

Retired Sunday Times investigative journalist Jon Abbott was already on to Van Rooyen in 2011. Abbott, who writes a regular blog titled Dearjon Letter, tells Noseweek he encountered the conman-doctor that year when he was commissioned to investigate his relationship with a former patient.

Prior to Van Rooyen’s hearing at the HPCSA, Abbott broke the story in his DearJonLetter about how the doctor had exploited an elderly patient, Richard Rowberry, now deceased. Abbott had submitted a letter of complaint to the HPCSA on behalf of Rowberry’s son Eric in October 2012.

At the time, Abbott heard via the grapevine that Van Rooyen was talking about suing him for damages for “prejudging the hearings”.

In a July 2016 blog entitled “Caring doctor who cashed cheques for his elderly patients”, Abbott wrote: “In 2011 Eric Rowberry, who was then working in West Africa, asked me to look into Van Rooyen’s relationship with his father Richard who died aged 69 at his home in Cape Town on 21 July 2010. Van Rooyen had begun treating him four months earlier when he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

“During this time the doctor went to the bank, allegedly on Richard’s behalf, and cashed seven cheques made out to cash, totalling R68,000. There was no dispute that the doctor cashed the cheques and the fee he charged for all his services was an agreed R5,000 a month.

Denne historien er fra February 2019-utgaven av Noseweek.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra February 2019-utgaven av Noseweek.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA NOSEWEEKSe alt
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
Noseweek

Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit

After losing his cool when his fees were questioned

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2020
Panel Beater De Luxe
Noseweek

Panel Beater De Luxe

Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.

time-read
8 mins  |
September 2020
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Noseweek

Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman

Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2020
A Picture Of Peace?
Noseweek

A Picture Of Peace?

Beware: Appearances can be deceptive

time-read
6 mins  |
September 2020
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Noseweek

Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse

Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be

time-read
4 mins  |
September 2020
Everybody Drinks Corona
Noseweek

Everybody Drinks Corona

I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.

time-read
3 mins  |
May 2020
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
Noseweek

Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic

From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary

time-read
4 mins  |
May 2020
The money train
Noseweek

The money train

Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2020
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Noseweek

‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'

Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’

time-read
8 mins  |
May 2020
Bush school – A memoir
Noseweek

Bush school – A memoir

OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2020