Johannesburg - Despite her virulent denials, the recent atrocious behaviour by Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba raises questions about both her professional behaviour and her commitment to democracy as someone who holds a political office.
Ramathuba recently came under fire after a video of her berating a foreign national went viral on social media. In the clip, Ramathuba launches into a rant at the hapless patient after she revealed that she speaks Shona.
The MEC is heard, among other utterances, saying: “You’re supposed to be with Mnagwagwa; he doesn’t give me money to operate you guys. Now I must operate on my limited budget…”
Ramathuba and many of her supporters have come out to justify what is not only unprofessional and unethical, but also xenophobic behaviour.
Some have even gone to the ridiculous extent of projecting her as a champion of the struggle against “the incompetent ANC government run by uncaring geriatrics who are frustrating efforts by young leaders like comrade Phophi to improve the quality of life for the marginalised majority”.
These are the people who have accused those ousting Ramathuba, for her not only unprofessional and unethical but also xenophobic behaviour towards African foreign nationals, of displaying symptoms of “classism and intellectualism that have no bearing to the realities of the South Africa majority whose rights to access to basic health are being trampled upon by illegal immigrants”.
The reality is that the MEC’s utterance including her telling the belittled patient that she “was supposed to be with Mnangagwa who does not give her money to operate illegal immigrants” is xenophobic.
It is as xenophobic as the statement: “Go get your pay increase from Nelson Mandela” – normally made by some white employers to their black employees post-1994 is racist.
Most importantly, through her behaviour, she has confirmed the findings of a 2011 study conducted under the aegis of the Southern African Migration Programme which found that “medical xenophobia” was very real in the South African public health system.
The study explained medical xenophobia as including the negative attitudes and practices of health professionals and practices of health professionals and employees towards migrants and refugees.
Conducted among Zimbabwean migrants, the study also found that migrants were also caught up in the “crisis of care” that affects every patient in the public health system. This “crisis of care” included the failure of the public health system that ordinary South Africans were experiencing.
Among the practices uncovered in the study were the following:
First, patients were required to show identity documentation, proof of residence status and evidence of a home address before treatment is provided. Patients who, for one reason or another, do not have such documentation on their persons can be denied treatment.
Second, communication difficulties arose when health staff refused to communicate with patients in a common language or allow the use of translators.
Third, treatment was often accompanied by verbal abuse and insults. Fourth, non-South African patients often had to wait until all South African patients had been attended to even if they had been waiting longer for treatment.
On the other hand, Ramathuba’s behaviour is contrary to the spirit and the letter of South Africa’s Constitution because practices of medical xenophobia are a fundamental breach of the Bill of Rights, international human rights obligations and various professional codes of ethics governing the treatment of patients.
What becomes important is for the public to see through Ramathuba’s politricks of deflecting attention from the real cause of the “crisis care” which is now fanning the fires of xenophobia among ordinary South Africans – which is the government’s failure to run an effective health system.
Lekota is former political editor at Sowetan.