Call for removal of SA official

Harare (New Ziana)-THE Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on Thursday reacted angrily to a video recording of Dr Phophi Ramathuba, a Member of the Executive Council (MEC) of Health for the Limpopo province, South Africa, in which she is seen berating a sickly patient.

The EFF described the conduct of Ramathuba as “cynical, arrogant and morally bankrupt”. Her rant, it explained, was “inhumane”.

In the video that has gone viral on social media, Ramathuba cross-examines and humiliates a patient, who is due for surgery.

For Ramathuba, the patient’s crime is that she is receiving medical care in South Africa, while she is from Zimbabwe.

The xenophobic comments were delivered in full view of other people, who were full of mirth.

But the EFF says the comments were an act of “merciless shaming of a patient” and that the utterances revealed “a shocking hatred for a fellow human being by someone tasked with protecting and saving human life”.

In its condemnation of Ramathuba’s action, the EFF said the Afrophobic attack had no justification and was both cruel and malicious.

“It is a slippery slope because health rights are human rights, and to attempt to rationalise the denial of the provision of healthcare on the basis of someone’s nationality, will lead to gross human violations whose logic is pure hatred.

“It will graduate from denial of healthcare on the basis of nationality to the denial of healthcare on the basis of one’s contribution to the tax revenue that is meant to ensure that all people are provided with basic human rights.”

Ramathuba, in the EFF’s view is a “reckless populist”, who was joining the “pretentious and opportunistic campaign” of the ruling party in South Africa, the ANC, which the EFF says is seeking to shift the blame of the collapse of the healthcare sector and degeneration in all spheres of South Africa on foreign nationals.

According to the EFF, Ramathuba appears to be parroting the kinds of xenophobic sentiments so often attributed to Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, and various officials of the ruling party in South Africa, who were scapegoating their failure in governance on African people.

The EFF called for the removal of Ramathuba as an MEC on the basis that she had clearly violated the integrity of a patient and undermined the Hippocratic Oath because she had caused intentional harm and humiliation to a patient.

In simple terms, the Hippocratic oath, which has its origins in ancient Greek, is a promise made by people when they become doctors to do everything possible to help their patients and to have high moral standards in their work.

In South Africa, a part of the oath used by the South African Medical Association reads: “I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient.”

But it appears some in the medical profession in South Africa no longer have regard for that oath, if the widely circulated video of Limpopo MEC for health is anything to go by.

While claiming that she was not being xenophobic, Ramathuba also told the patient that she should seek treatment in her home country because migrants were stretching her department’s budget.

The unrestrained attack on the patient also drew the ire of many South Africans who were quick to remind the doctor of her oath.

If the Hippocratic oath was not enough to convince Ramathuba, various South African laws and policies, including the constitution guarantee the right of every person in that country to access medical care.

Section 27 of the South African constitution states that; “(1) Everyone has the right to have access to— (a) health care services, including
reproductive health care; (b) sufficient food and water; and (c) social security, including, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependants, appropriate social assistance.

“(2) The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights. (3) No one may be refused emergency medical treatment.”

The rights set out in the Constitution of South Africa provide for all people within South Africa, regardless of their nationality or legal status and this fact has been confirmed by South African courts.

South Africa’s TimesLive quoted Dr Angelique Coetzee, a Solidarity Doctors Network board member, saying the MEC was out of line because the constitution makes it compulsory for anyone to receive emergency medical attention.

“Even if they cross the border illegally to get health services, it is not their fault. She [the MEC] was not supposed to embarrass her like that in front of people. It was unethical, unprofessional and out of line. She should have addressed that at a different level,” Coetzee suggested.

A user by the handle Dr T Stanzo (MBChB) @realmedicaldoc said: “Unfortunately she is wrong! She should address this to the relevant authorities. Not a sick, helpless, vulnerable patient, probably her care already compromised just because she is from across the border! It’s unethical. Let her address the Zimbabwean government itself.”

@MbuyiseniNdlozi added: “This is an outright violation of human rights. She thinks she is making some brilliant points, with an ill-informed pompous attitude! Why antagonise sick persons in hospital beds? Where is
your basic humanity and compassion? What a pathetic person this whole MEC is! Afrophobe princess.”

The South African government has refused to be drawn into discussing the conduct of Ramathuba, saying it would do so when the Zimbabwean authorities make it a diplomatic issue.

New Ziana