Despite the Health Department insisting diet pill Simply Slim must not be on the country’s shelves currently, some pharmacies are still selling the product to the public.

The Medicines Control Council suspended sales of the product because it was not registered properly.

It said some people have complained about serious side-effects of the weight-loss drug.

One pharmacy is blatantly flouting the warning though, offering to sell the product at R590 for a bottle of 500 pills.

“Yes, we know about that problem, and it’s fine, you can just ask for Wendy,” said the pharmacy’s salesperson.

Others are still selling Simply Slim because they simply do not know they are not supposed to

One pharmacist responded to a question whether they sell the pills saying, “We do, but we just sold the last one on Saturday and I’m waiting for my stock to come.”

However, most pharmacy’s phoned by Eyewitness News are obeying the directive

“We’re not keeping it until they’ve done their investigation,” said an obeying pharmacist.

That is largely attributed to the risk being too high, as one agent knows full well.

“It’s illegal now to sell it. So I can give it to you, but they can arrest me and I won’t try to take that risk,” she said.