EFF and DA report Health MEC to SA Human Rights Commission
The EFF have also written to the Health Professions Council Of South Africa to demand that she be suspended for "gross unethical misconduct".
POLOKWANE – The EFF and the DA have both reported the Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) over her remarks made in a viral video.
Ramathuba was captured on video talking to a Zimbabwean patient at a hospital in Bela Bela and told the patient that illegal foreigners are killing her health system.
Read more: “You are killing my health system” – Health MEC tells Zim patient
Ramathuba asked 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.
The video has since gained traction on social media, with a divided opinion over what Ramathuba said.
The EFF have described the video as dehumanising and abusive and called on the SAHRC to investigate her conduct and take appropriate action against her.
“This xenophobic attitude against fellow Africans is despicable, shameful and unaccepted and must never find resonance in modern society,” their letter read.
Must Read| The EFF’s letter to the South African Human Rights Commission over gross violation of
Human Rights by the Limpopo MEC of Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba.#RamathubaMustGo pic.twitter.com/8moiMbYe2i— Economic Freedom Fighters Limpopo (@EFF_Limpopo) August 24, 2022
The EFF have also written to the Health Professionals Council of South Africa and demanded that she be suspended for “gross unethical misconduct”.
Limpopo Provincial Convenor Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said Ramathuba violated her core ethical values and standards for good practice as outlined by the council.
“Her entire ill-informed and inumane performance and address to a sick patient awaiting surgery is inconsistent with all universal standards of patient confidentiality and dignity,” he said.
[Must Read] Full EFF Limpopo Statement on MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba’s Abuse of Patients in Bela Bela Hospital https://t.co/dTYWdLXhfq pic.twitter.com/ZBGEjgBmiG
— Economic Freedom Fighters Limpopo (@EFF_Limpopo) August 24, 2022
“The MEC’s open rejection of patients awaiting surgery on the basis that they are African from other countries is only informed by nothing else, but Afrophobia,” another statement read.
Meanwhile, the DA Limpopo’s spokesperson for health Risham Maharaj said the video is “just another reason why she must be fired in order to save the province’s health system.”
“We consider Ramathuba’s comments as xenophobic, inconsistent with the standard of treatment that should be afforded to a patient and not in the best interest or well being of the patient.
As an MEC, she should have treated the situation with the necessary sensitivity despite her own frustrations and ensured the foreign national is afforded the same level of respect and treatment as any other patient,” a statement read.
If ANC politicians are so bold, they must confront President Mnangagwa and other dictators directly for their failures.
Scapegoating vulnerable patients and attacking foreign national for failing politicians is not the solution – it just incites more violence in communities. https://t.co/luvfeQSr0W
— John Steenhuisen MP (@jsteenhuisen) August 24, 2022
Maharaj said Ramathuba cannot place the difficulty of running the province’s health department on foreign nationals alone and side-step years of her department’s failures, corruption, mismanagement and incompetence.
“Ramathuba has been a perennial underachiever in her role as MEC and has overseen the lacklustre performance of the province’s health department. It is disingenuous of the MEC to use foreign nationals as a scapegoat and blame them for the province’s ailing health system,” he said.
Ramathuba told the SABC that she stands by what she said.
“When the people of Limpopo expect to be operated on and are not, they come to me for answers. When there are challenges, I will address them for the sake of the people of Limpopo,” she said.
