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LEANNE JANSEN
SOUTH African Cameron Bellamy and six other rowershave finally departed from Western Australia forDurban, on an 8 000km adventure across the IndianOcean. By 10.30am local time yesterday, they were justover five hours into their voyage in the purpose-builtScotia Explorer.
The crew, skippered by Scotsman Leven Brown,will row in two-hour shifts for an estimated 80 days,nonstop, to complete their journey, and in so doing seta world first.
According to a blog post about “The MagnificentSeven”, as they have been named by their Australianfriends, the cold, rainy weather had given way to blueskies for the crew’s departure from Geraldton.
The rowers, from Iceland, Australia, Scotland andSouth Africa, are expected to lose 1kg every three daysdespite a daily 6 500 calorie intake of freeze-driedmeals, nuts and chocolate.
Bellamy said he felt privileged to be able toaccomplish his dream of rowing an ocean with such anaccomplished crew. “Being able to literally row homemakes this extremely special to me,” said the 32-year-oldCapetonian, who represented South Africa at the under-23 World Rowing Championships in 2003 and cycled soloacross China, central Asia and India five years ago.
KENNEDY MUDZULI
ENVOYS from various coun-tries are among those who hadsigned condolence books forformer president ThaboMbeki’s mother Epainette inPretoria by yesterday.
The books were opened onMonday at the Kgorong Build-ing at Unisa’s main campus inMuckleneuk, as well as the uni-versity’s Robert M Sobukwe
Building near Nana Sita Streetin the city centre.
The hard-cover books havethe words “In memory of ourbeloved Mrs Epainette PinyNomaka Mbeki” on the front.
This is accompanied by aportrait of the liberation Strug-gle veteran and wife of the lateANC and SACP stalwart GovanMbeki. The same wording andphoto appear on the top of eachpage.
At least five pages werefull of condolence messagesat both venues by close of busi-ness.
The ambassadors of Cuba,Algeria and Eritrea signed onbehalf of the governments oftheir countries and their peo-ple at the main campus.
Signatories at the Robert MSobukwe Building includedrepresentatives of the diplo-matic missions of Niger,
Jamaica, Israel and BurkinaFaso, who expressed their con-dolences on behalf of theircountries.
Most of the messages havebeen written in English, whilesome people used MaMbeki’sXhosa home language, with afew in Tswana, which is spokenlargely in the capital.
In the condolence messages,writers praised MaMbeki and said she had lived her life
to the fullest.P Mphahlele wrote: “I hope
we can live through your ideasand what you strived for.”
Another citizen, who justsigned as Ignatius, said: “Wehave lost a mother”.
In another message, MGMamorobela wrote: “I am at aloss of adequate words toexpress my gratitude to you.
“I had an opportunity ofknowing you Mama and I know
heaven has just received themost special angel.”
MaMbeki died in the LifeSt Dominic’s Hospital in EastLondon, aged 98, on Saturdaymorning.
She had suffered from aheart problem and chest infec-tion and had been in hospitalsince late last month.
She will buried on Saturdayduring a special provincial offi-cial funeral, an honour re-served for distinguished SouthAfricans who have made ameaningful contribution to thecountry.
12 NEWS THURSDAY JUNE 12 2014 The Star
Young women risk lives with DIY abortions
SUSIE NEILSON AND JOYCE [email protected]@inl.co.za
QUEEN* sat outside abuy-and-braai shop inWindmill Park, Boks-
burg, in a faded red hoodie,fighting back tears.
Four months ago, the 17-year-old lost her child.
She does not know whatcaused her 2-month-old baby’sdeath.
“I wasn’t even coping inschool,” she recalled.
This is not the first timeQueen has lost a child, she said.
When she detected her firstpregnancy early in the firsttrimester two years ago, shedrank Stametta, a liquid for-mula readily available at drug-stores across the country.
Several weeks later, she feltrelief in her still-flat stomach.
To most users, Stametta isknown as a powerful and pun-gent liquid laxative. Its manu-facturer, Bodicare, markets theformula as a “body healing liq-uid” and a “superior healthformula”.
But Queen grew up hearingrumours that Stametta could“bend the sperm”, and a googlesearch shows she’s not alone.
“Can stametta really kill thepregnancy,” reads the subject ofone Wiki board.
A comment on another sitereads: “I thnk im preg bt i dntwnt da baby yet..cn stametta kilda bby” (I think I’m pregnantbut I don’t want the baby yet…can Stametta kill the baby?).”
And when UCT surveyed agroup of 600 women attemptingabortions in their secondtrimester, nearly 10 percent hadfirst used Stametta, making itthe most widely used backdoorabortion method for women inthe second trimester.
Sister Brenda Mavundla-
Bamazo, regional manager atMarie Stopes abortion clinic,said many women usedStametta to avoid the socialstigma around abortion, prefer-ring to terminate their chil-dren in privacy.
Many use her clinic as a lastresort.
But whenever Mavundla-Bamazo sees a patient whoadmits to having takenStametta, she sends the womanto hospital immediately.
“(When women) havealready takenStametta, theytend to bleeduncontrollablyduring theabortion proce-d u r e , ”Mavundla-Bamazo said, notingthat Stametta’s cramping effectcould induce early labour oreven puncture the uterus, acondition that can lead to inter-nal haemorrhage or sepsis.
Stametta’s manufacturers,Bodicare, did not respond torepeated requests for commentover the past month.
Stametta’s bottle comeswith a small, smudged label
warning pregnant women notto drink it.
The free sample bottle thatcomes attached recommends adose three times larger thanthat of the first bottle, and listsentirely different ingredients.
Except for the identicalpackage design, the sample bottle reads like a differentproduct.
Dr Neil Gower, a homeo-pathics expert, wrote that themedicine’s ingredients lists,which referred to “Aloe” and
“Vitamin com-plex”, were toovaguely wordedto know whattheir effectsmight be.
E x p e r t scould not locate an ingredientknown to induce abortion oneither bottle.
But the liquid’s chemicalmake-up is so complicated itwould require a small fortuneand merit a “PhD in itself” toanalyse, according to Witschemistry professor KatrynaCukrowska.
Stametta is one of 155 000“complementary medicines”
recognised by The MedicinesControl Council. Unlike ordi-nary drugs, which mustundergo a battery of testsbefore they are sold to the pub-lic, these drugs require nosafety or quality assessmentsbefore they are allowed to linethe shelves of supermarketsand pharmacies.
In November, the councilissued an amendment to its1965 medicinal guidelines witha “long-awaited plan” to evalu-ate complementary medicinesin phases.
By February 14, every com-plementary medicine that hadnot been evaluated wasrequired to display the follow-ing disclaimer: “This medicinehas not been evaluated by TheMedicines Control Council.This product is not intended to
diagnose, treat, cure or preventany disease.”
Stametta is one of manymedicines that have not yetupdated packaging to complywith these regulations.
“Technically, (Stametta) isan illegal product,” said Dr RoyJobson, associate professor ofpharmacology at RhodesUniversity.
Gower said: “Most impor-tantly, should anyone be awareof any negative outcomes ofthe administration of thisproduct it should be reported toThe Medicines Control CouncilInspectorate immediately… forevaluation, investigation andpossible measure of redress…Including withdrawal from themarket, legal or registrationprocedures.”
Apart from telling her
schoolteacher, this is the firsttime Queen opened up abouther Stametta use.
She said she had heard girlsat her school whisper aboutthe product’s potentially deadlyside effects; but she believednone of them would speak out-side of their own circles, due tothe stigma of abortion.
When asked why she tookthe product despite knowingabout the side effects, sheshrugged.
“I was willing to take thatrisk,” she said.
She feared a baby woulddefer her dreams. Eventuallyshe wants to become anoptometrist and marry Lucky*,her boyfriend of five years.
In 2002, the council issued anotice meant to “call up” infor-mation from complementary
medicine companies. Though“well-intentioned”, the noticeasked for administrative dataonly, it did not ask for anyinformation concerning ingre-dients or curative claims.
The audit was supposed tohave expired after six months,on August 22 of that year.
Instead, for the next 11years, medicine companiessent their data to the councilaccording to the audit’s terms,in lieu of a quality check on themedicines themselves.
On October 29, 2010, HealthMinister Aaron Motsoalediwrote a letter to Parliament,stating that none of the 155 000complementary medicines onthe market had been checkedfor quality, safety or efficacy.
The previous year, Jobson,who has served as a member on
the Allied Health ProfessionsCouncil of South Africa andthe Professional Board forHomoeopathy, Naturopathyand Phytotherapy, penned anopen letter expressing concernabout The Medicine’s ControlCouncil’s lack of oversight ofcomplementary medicine.
With no independent assess-ment or substantiation, hewrote, there was no way to tellif the medicines simply didn’twork, contained banned sub-stances, or were contaminatedby bacteria, among other possi-ble impurities.
He never received an officialresponse.
“This is a scandal I havebeen trying to expose foryears,” wrote Jobson in an e-mail.
*Not their real names
Alarm raised onuse of untestedcomplementarymedicines
MOTHER WITHOUT A CHILD: Queen stands in an empty field near her home in Windmill Park as the sun sets. She lost her baby when she drank acomplementary medicine – fearing that a child would defer her dreams. PICTURE: JOYCE LEE
QUESTIONED: Stametta liquid purports blood and cell cleansing,helping performance, menopause, cramps, lowering blood sugar,acne and wound healing. PICTURE: MOTSHWARI MOFOKENG
The bottle comeswith a small,smudged label
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‘Magnificent Seven’aim to row 8 000km
STRUGGLE ICON: Tsholofelo Mushi signs the condolence book forEpainette Mbeki at Unisa yesterday. PICTURE: OUPA MOKOENA
Ambassadors pay tribute to MaMbeki in Pretoria
EPIC JOURNEY: The crew who left Australiayesterday are, from left, Tim Spiteri of Australia,Fiann Paul of Iceland, Cameron Bellamy of SouthAfrica, Jamie Douglas-Hamilton of Scotland, ShaneUsher of Australia, Heather Rees-Gaunt of Scotlandand skipper Leven Brown of Scotland.
