EDITORIAL | Charity starts at home: fostering regional relationships is important

Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba let rip this week about her frustrations when she told a foreign national why they would have to settle their bill before being discharged.  

She told the unfortunate person that Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa should take responsibility for Zimbabwe’s health issues. She is right, but Mnangagwa is the one who should feel her ire, not the hapless patient who would have preferred to be treated by competent doctors in a well-equipped hospital back home.

Her rant crystallises some of the problems faced by foreign nationals (many of whom are in SA because their living conditions in their home countries are unbearable) and a SA struggling to makes its finances stretch to take care of its own citizens (many of whose lives sometimes feel unbearable too). It is the yin of economic reality versus the yang of the humanitarian impulse we would like to cherish. We shouldn’t have to choose between the two.

It is the yin of economic reality versus the yang of the humanitarian impulse we would like to cherish. We shouldn’t have to choose between the two.

Ramathuba should be left to run the health department in Limpopo with a reasonable degree of predictability about the services she is required to provide and to whom. National government, on the other hand, should better manage the influx of people from neighbouring countries. One way is by putting pressure on, or finding incentives for, neighbouring countries to improve the economic opportunities — and the healthcare services — they provide to their own populations. Another is to improve border control by making it harder to jump the border and by clamping down on corruption at our border posts. Unless we are able to shift blockages in these admittedly difficult areas, we will continue to see people streaming in for the opportunities they see in SA. And more burden will be placed on hospitals and the fiscus.

We are often dismayed by the contempt meted out to Africans seeking refuge in Europe. The racism and inhumanity sickens us. And yet we do not always fare better. When we become overwhelmed we lash out at those closest to us — in this case, the unfortunate patient in need of medical care. 

Putting more effort into regional relationships, trade and influence should result in less demand for our resources from people beyond our borders. When that burden is lifted, we will find it easier to be kinder and more tolerant towards migrants. By tackling the economic problem, we will also find the ubuntu solution. 

If we want to show the world how to treat Africans fleeing their circumstances, we need to put in a lot more effort into managing the political and economic relationships we have with our neighbours.