Trafficking of persons for the removal of organs and the admission of guilt of a South African hospital

Abstract

In November 2010, under the authority of the South African National Director of Public Prosecution, Netcare Kwa-Zulu (Pty) Limited entered into an agreement whereby it pleaded guilty to 102 counts related to charges stemming from having allowed its ‘employees and facilities to be used to conduct . . . illegal kidney transplant operations’. Charged along with this private company which was, in fact, the St Augustine’s Hospital, located in Durban, South Africa, were the parent company, Netcare, its CEO, Richard Friedland, and eight others: four transplant doctors, a nephrologist, two transplant administrative coordinators, and a translator. The admission of guilt relates to 109 illegal kidney transplant operations which took place between June 2001 and November 2003 within a scheme whereby Israeli citizens in need of kidney transplants would be brought to South Africa for transplants performed at St Augustine’s Hospital.