“You are killing my health system” – Health MEC tells Zim patient
The MEC's spokesperson has since responded to a media query about the video.
POLOKWANE – “You are killing my health system.”
The Limpopo MEC for Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba has garnered both support and criticism for a viral video in which she tells a Zimbabwean patient at a hospital in Bela-Bela that “Mnangagwa doesn’t give me money to operate [on] you guys,” referring to Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The video, which shows part of a conversation, starts off with Ramathuba asking the patient how she wound up in Bela Bela if she only speaks Shona, and that she must operate on the patient with a limited budget.
Limpopo Health MEC and provincial ANC official Dr Phophi Ramathuba to Zimbabwean patient admitted at a hospital in Bela-BelaP:
'You're supposed to be with Mnangagwa, he doesn't give me money to operate you guys. Now I must operate you with my limited budget…' #SadReality pic.twitter.com/rmC1iuOoR5— Thohoyandou 🇿🇦 🇧🇼 (@AlbaMokopane) August 23, 2022
Ramathuba goes on to refer to Zimbabweans crossing the Limpopo River illegally into South Africa. “I hear you say ‘Let’s cross the Limpopo River, there’s an MEC there running a charitable department’,” she said.
Ramathuba then goes on to explain that 91% of the province is dependent on the state for healthcare and that she receives a budget for that purpose.
“Instead of using the budget for what it is meant for, I am operating for what Mnangagwa is supposed to do and that is why when my people of Limpopo want health services, they can’t get. That is angering them,” she told the patient.
Ramthuba goes on to say that the patient is illegal and therefore abusing her. “It is unfair,” she concluded.
The spokesperson for the MEC of Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba, Thilivhali Muavha told the Polokwane Review that the message conveyed by Ramathuba “covers all”.
The video has since gained traction on social media, with a divided opinion over what Ramathuba said.
The EFF’s Deputy President Floyd Shivambu said Ramathuba has “violated the Hippocratic Oath which obliges all physicians/doctors to ‘abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free’.”
He labelled her remarks as unfair abuse and discrimination.
“Dr”. Phophi has certainly violated the Hippocratic Oath which obliges all Physicians/Doctors to “abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free”. This is unfair abuse & discrimination. pic.twitter.com/EARJ6gzpbf
— Floyd Shivambu (@FloydShivambu) August 24, 2022
The DA’s Solly Malatsi said Ramathuba’s comments were reckless as it vilified a foreign national seeking medical assistance.
“She must implore the president to address issues raised through diplomatic channels instead of lambasting a vulnerable patient. This is not leadership,” he said.
The comments by the MEC of Health in Limpopo, Dr Phophi, vilifying a foreign national seeking medical assistance are reckless.
She must implore the President to address issues raised through diplomatic channels instead of lambasting a vulnerable patient.
This is not leadership. pic.twitter.com/eiBk5JJSRC
— SollyMalatsi (@SollyMalatsi) August 24, 2022
Zimbabwean journlaist Hopewell Chin’ono, however, agreed with Ramathuba.
“In any normal country this video would be the leading item on all news stations and newspapers and it would cause emergency debate in parliament tomorrow morning, but not in Zimbabwe. This South African minister is right, Zimbabwe has become an embarrassment due to Zanu PF LOOTING,” he tweeted.
In any normal country this video would be the leading item on all news stations & newspapers, and it would cause emergency debate in parliament tomorrow morning, but not in Zimbabwe.
This South African minister is right, Zimbabwe has become an embarrassment due to ZANUPF LOOTING pic.twitter.com/XzCWRHx9GN
— Hopewell Chin’ono (@daddyhope) August 23, 2022
Here’s what other social media users had to say:
Hands off our beloved Dr Phophi…. Brave and spitting facts to those who hide behind the most abused word “XENOPHOBIA “…
Dr Phophi Tembisa #NationalShutdown Xenophobic pic.twitter.com/25uMKuNesF
— M B H A P E…. 🇿🇦🇿🇦 (@Mbhape1) August 24, 2022
This is a conversation Dr Phophi should be having with her Zim counterpart.
Not a patient in a hospital who will be or just got an operation. https://t.co/aWEbNswL6d— Zimasa Matiwane (@ZimasaMatiwane) August 23, 2022
Hands off Dr Phophi, break a leg and go seek health care in a foreign country, come back and tell us how it went. South Africa is not a charity house.
— katli. 🇿🇦 (@bananakid15) August 24, 2022
In January, Ramathuba also went viral after remarking that young girls should ‘open their books and close their legs’.
Read more: Social media users outraged at Limpopo MEC’s ‘Close your Legs’ remark
