Cape Town attorney Adam Pike, of Pike Law, who heads Noakes’ legal team says Strydom’s charge has no merit whatsoever. He says the hearing has become “an extraordinary opportunity for the issues in question to be ventilated in public”.
It has created much-needed debate about evidence-based medicine, nutrition, doctor-patient relationships, and the role of doctors, academics, scientists, nutritionists and dietitians in ensuring that the public has access to “the best diet and nutrition information available, not just information contained in official dietary guidelines”.
The hearing is also about freedom of speech, says Pike. Strydom and the HPCSA appear to believe Noakes has no right to express his opinions on nutrition freely, and shouldn’t be giving dietary advice that differs from officially accepted dogma.