Limpopo MEC for Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba has failed to put a stop to an inquiry by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) into comments she made to a Zimbabwean patient when she visited Bela Bela Hospital last year.
A disciplinary inquiry had been set down for July to probe complaints against her after the conversation – which went viral on social media – during which she said to the woman, “You are killing my health system,” among other things.
While Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) Judge Anthony Millar, in refusing to grant Ramathuba an interdict, did not detail the complaints, it is public record she had told the patient that Zimbabweans were putting a huge strain on the provincial health system, reports GroundUp.
Ramathuba brought the application, in her capacity as the MEC for Health, in two parts.
Part A was for an interdict pending part B – a review application in which she would seek an order declaring the decision of the HPCSA issued against her on 9 February as unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid, and declaring the HPCSA lacks jurisdiction over the conduct of the applicant as an MEC.
Only part A was considered by Millar last week, and he ruled last Friday.
In his judgment, he said that after the conversation, a number of complaints had been laid against Ramathuba with the HPCSA.
Ramathuba disputed the complaints, both in her capacity as the MEC for Health and as a medical practitioner.
The judge said the HPCSA had a two-stage complaints procedure, the first being a preliminary inquiry, which could result in the complaint being resolved. If it is not, it is referred to a formal inquiry.
He said a preliminary committee had resolved that she was guilty of unprofessional conduct but that it was only a “minor transgression” and that she should be cautioned for unprofessional behaviour, unbecoming of a medical professional, for “shouting at a patient’s bedside as the patient was vulnerable at the time”.
The HPCSA, in a letter to Ramathuba, said the acceptance of this penalty would not constitute a conviction and would not be reflected against her name, that the matter would be regarded as finalised.
But Ramathuba refused to accept the finding. She wrote to the HPCSA in February this year, challenging it on the basis that it had no jurisdiction over her.
The HPCSA disagreed with this, and set the formal hearing dates.
“… she says she conducted the conversation in her capacity as an MEC and not as a medical practitioner,” Millar said.
“The question is, 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 her status as a medical practitioner is a professional one.
“The holding of political office and remaining registered as a medical practitioner are not mutually exclusive. The one hallmark of both is that the individual concerned accepts that they are, and subject themselves to being accountable for their actions.
“It seems to me to be a wholly contrived and self-serving assertion that conduct is determined depending upon ‘which hat a person is wearing at the time’,” the judge said.
He said Ramathuba had maintained her registration with the HPCSA so she had no right to avoid its jurisdiction. If she had de-registered then the situation would be different.
He dismissed the application and ordered Ramathuba to pay the HPCSA’s costs.
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