Threats to “switch off foreign nationals’ oxygen machines in hospital” have led to charges of hate speech against SA’s new Sports, Arts & Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie.
The complaint against the leader of the Patriotic Alliance party – for “incitement of xenophobic violence, hate speech and intimidation” – was lodged at Sandton Police Station by Advocate Simba Chitando on Monday on behalf of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holder Association (Zepha), which said McKenzie incited South Africans to “murder vulnerable foreign nationals in hospital and, by implication, outside hospital”.
“McKenzie intentionally, for admitted political reasons, communicated his desire to harm foreign nationals receiving treatment in South African hospitals in a manner that could cause their death, in public broadcasts on national television,” according to the complaint.
It added that this violates the Prevention and Combatting of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act.
McKenzie’s 2022 threat to personally switch off foreign nationals’ oxygen machines in hospitals was widely quoted in the South African press, reports MoneyWeb.
This came shortly after a video of then Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba lambasting a Zimbabwean patient for coming to SA rather than staying in Zimbabwe for treatment, and claiming that foreign nationals were overburdening the healthcare system.
McKenzie later told eNCA: “If there is a South African, Zimbabwean and Mozambican patient on oxygen and I see a South African patient born and bred in SA, I will turn the oxygen off so that the South African can live.”
This prompted the Progressive Health Forum (PHF) to call for criminal sanctions against those who incite murder.
PHF convener Dr Aslam Dasoo said both Ramathuba and McKenzie’s comments were “the language of ethnic cleansing and genocide”.
Zepha says it wants the police and the National Prosecuting Authority to take lawful action against McKenzie for his xenophobic and hate speech comments, which it said amount to an incitement to violence.
Failure to do so would be in breach of the United Nations Durban Declaration against racism and xenophobia. It would also violate domestic legislation and the Constitution.
Responding to a recent media article by Chitando threatening McKenzie with prosecution – if not in SA then by the International Criminal Court – Mackenzie has said his main mandate was “mass-deportation”.
“Parliament will know our chant: ‘Abahambe’ (they must go).”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Why MEC should be disciplined for Zimbabwean patient rant
Limpopo MEC under fire over migrants comments
Medical xenophobia and discrimination widespread in Gauteng health care