The champion of the Banting diet is appearing before a professional conduct hearing of the Health Professions Council.
He has been accused by the Association for Dietetics in South Africa of giving ”unconventional advice” on social media when he suggested a baby be weaned on a high fat‚ low carbohydrate diet.
Today his counsel‚ Advocate Michael van der Nest‚ made submissions for experts from New Zealand and Canada to testify – in support of Noakes – via live video streaming.
Noakes cannot afford to fly these experts to South Africa.
But Advocate Meshack Mapholisa‚ acting for the council‚ has opposed the request saying this has never been done before. He conceded that there were no written regulations prohibiting such testimony‚ but said there could be a variety of interruptions including load shedding and technical problems.
Mapholisa was also concerned that an expert could be ”assisted” by someone while giving testimony.
The committee is to make a decision on this and adjourned the hearing.
