Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba has the ANC’s full support for her 2022 remarks to a Zimbabwean patient in Bela Bela Hospital about foreigners “killing” the health system, but a judge has described her protests as “contrived and self-serving”.
Amid a Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) probe into her controversial comments at the time, when she was Health MEC, the ANC believes “she said nothing wrong and was quite correct to raise the alarm”.
The HPCSA launched the formal inquiry last week after finding, in 2023, that she had conducted herself in an “unprofessional” manner that was “unbecoming of a medical professional to be shouting at a patient's bedside”.
However, it added, acceptance of the penalty “will not constitute a conviction and will not be reflected against your name as a previous conviction”.
But Ramathuba had refused to accept the preliminary findings, prompting a formal inquiry. She lost a case in the Gauteng High Court to interdict the HPCSA from conducting an inquiry against her last year.
ANC Limpopo spokesperson Jimmy Machaka defended the Premier, telling TimesLIVE the HPCSA should not have investigated the matter as she “made the comments in her capacity as Health MEC”.
“She was correct to raise alarm about the illegal foreigners over-burdening the health sector in our province and the country,” he said.
“Her statement … was made in her political capacity as Health MEC and should not have been subjected to HPCSA inquiry. We believe the HPCSA is attempting to enter political terrain.”
In the court case, Judge Anthony Millar found the politician had not deregistered under the Council and therefore it had the right to investigate her.
“The question is this – is the applicant in her capacity as MEC a separate persona from the applicant as a medical practitioner? The office of the MEC is a political one whereas the applicant’s status as a medical practitioner is a professional one.
“It is not at issue that she was registered as a medical practitioner and subject to the HPCSA before being appointed to the office of MEC. The holding of the political office and remaining registered as a medical practitioner are not mutually exclusive.”
Millar found it was a wholly contrived and self-serving assertion that conduct is to be determined depending upon “which hat a person is wearing at the time”, adding this was not consistent with the constitutional values or the law.
“There is… no distinction to be drawn between the different offices a person holds and their conduct. The applicant has no right, let alone a prima facie right, to avoid the jurisdiction of the HPCSA in circumstances where she has maintained her registration in terms of the Act. The position would have been different if she had deregistered, as she is entitled to do.”
TimesLIVE article – Limpopo ANC defends Phophi Ramathuba amid HPCSA inquiry
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