WATCH | ‘You are killing my health system,’ SA’s Limpopo health MEC tells Zimbabwean patient

Top news headlines

Cape Town – Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba is trending on social media after she was filmed telling a foreign national scheduled for surgery at a hospital in the province that she must be charged for treatment.

In the video that has gone viral, Ramathuba is heard telling the patient that her country, Zimbabwe, should take responsibility for health care, not South Africa.

She said that Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa was not contributing to Limpopo’s health budget.

“You are supposed to be with Mnangagwa. You are killing my health system. When you guys are sick you just say, ‘let’s cross the Limpopo river, there’s a MEC there who’s running a charity department,” said Ramathuba.

She said her department was given a budget based on the statistics of the province, however, the influx of foreign nationals had made it difficult to service people from the province.

“In Limpopo, we have 5.7-million people, 91% do not have medical aid, they are dependent on the state. The 9% have medical aids. Instead of using the budget for what it’s meant for … You are not even registered anywhere, you are illegal … This is unfair …,” she said.
Some social media users rallied behind the MEC, saying that her statements were not xenophobic.
The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), however, called for the revocation of Ramathuba’s medical licence and her removal from office for “humiliating” the Zimbabwean patient.

Speaking to TimesLIVE on Wednesday, the MEC said there would be justification in criticising her if the patient in question was in the country for an emergency but that was not the case.
She said her province had a backlog of surgical operations and on a daily basis foreign nationals were choking the health system in Limpopo.

“I started doing inspections, only to find that the vast majority of people on the list are foreign nationals and the operations they come here for are not even emergencies,” she said.

The report said Ramathuba had had to ask for favours from doctors across the country to operate on weekends but they were still not winning.

“In the meantime, the people of this province are looking to me for answers. I have this woman whose son got injured during a soccer game and he cannot go back to school. Instead of being operated on urgently, he had to wait and his parents are looking to me for answers,” the report quoted Ramathuba as saying.

Here are some reactions on Twitter

Follow African Insider on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram

Picture: Twitter/ @MsezaneZakhele

For more Africannews, visit Africaninsider.com 

Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe 

Article written by