I’m up to the job, just give me a chance, says acting health minister

She might not have a medical qualification, but Mmamoloko Kubayi says she is up to the job of handling the ministerial health portfolio.

But she admits she has felt the pressure in the three weeks since President Cyril Ramaphosa asked her to step in, when he placed Zweli Mkhize on special leave amid a Special Investigating Unit probe into the Digital Vibes affair.

“It’s been a rough patch but I think I am equal to the task,” the 43-year-old mother of two from Soweto told Sunday Times Daily.

“Personally I am taking strain because I had started a programme of exercising and I don’t have time to gym anymore. It’s about keeping healthy for me. My PhD has also taken a backseat.

“I think I am a typical example of how we need to balance lives and livelihoods.”

It helps that winter is not a peak time for her full-time ministerial portfolio, tourism. And if the pandemic is managed now, it will help the tourism sector later, she said. “By the end of August ... the third wave needs to be gone.”

Sometimes there is doubt in this country about what black women can do. Maybe this is a chance for us to say we do have capacity as black women, just give us a chance.

—  Acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi

Kubayi asked South Africans is to allow her to do the job she has been given. “For me it’s an opportunity I have grabbed with both hands. The president has shown confidence in me to help out during this time and because in cabinet we are collectively accountable, I have a duty to this country.

“Sometimes there is doubt in this country about what black women can do. Maybe this is a chance for us to say we do have capacity as black women, just give us a chance.”

Responding to criticism that deputy health minister Dr Joe Phaahla would have been a better choice to replace Mkhize, she said: “Look, I am not money, not everyone is going to like me. But everywhere I have been given a responsibility, I always give my best.”

She has not been vaccinated because “I don’t want to jump the queue”. But having watched colleagues and friends die, she said she is keen to get the jab.

“I have lost a comrade who was very close to me, who was my branch chairperson. We lost Jackson (Mthembu) and that was extremely devastating. Recently I lost the deputy speaker of Mpumalanga. We were in parliament together. I also lost my teacher who contributed to making me who I am today, and I could not bury him.

“It’s emotional because health is about dealing with people’s lives and when the numbers came that Gauteng had passed the 10,000 daily Covid-19 infections mark, it was something else for me.

“I thought: ‘These are not just numbers, these are people’s lives’.”