Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba had defended her comments after a video showing her telling a female patient that Zimbabwean migrants were straining the provincial healthcare system.
She also told the woman, believed to be Zimbabwean, that Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa “doesn’t give (her) money to operate” on Zimbabweans.
The incident took place at Bela Bela Hospital, reports News24.
“When you guys are sick, I’m hearing these days you just say, ‘Let’s cross the Limpopo River, there’s an MEC there that’s running a charity department’,” she told the patient. “Instead of using the budget for what it’s meant for, I’m operating for what Mnangagwa is supposed to do. That is why when my people of Limpopo want health services, they can’t get. That is angering the community.”
While berating the patient, she said the Health Department received a budget based on the number of people living in the province who didn’t have medical aid, but that she was also using it for foreign nationals, many of whom were undocumented.
After the video went viral on social media, some people criticised the MEC, while others defended her, saying she’d verbalised things that needed to be said.
Ramathuba said her comments had nothing to do with being “anti-illegal”. She said her province continued to offer medical treatment to everyone, regardless of their nationality. “Nobody will be denied medical service. We have been doing that and continue to do that, whether you are Zim or not,” she told News24.
The MEC said the Health Department was attempting to reduce the surgical backlog caused by COVID-19, and that she had recently found foreign nationals were on the lists for elective surgeries.
“In the orthopaedic surgery backlog, out of 27 patients, 19 were illegal foreign nationals, one of whom had been in an accident in Harare and came here specifically because he knew he needed surgery.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
The law and medical xenophobia in South Africa
Medical xenophobia and discrimination widespread in Gauteng health care
The rights of foreign nationals in accessing SA healthcare
Motsoaledi lashed for saying illegals are burdening health system