JONATHAN JANSEN | Ramathuba’s churlish comments have no place in SA government

Every time I think we have hit rock bottom with our xenophobic hatred of other Africans, people who look like us, there is a despicable South African somewhere out there to prove me wrong. Now, imagine you’re in desperate health and find yourself in hospital for life-saving treatment. Then, out of the blue, you find hovering over your broken body a provincial minister of health (MEC) surrounded by giggling underlings. And this is what she tells you:

You speak Shona? Then how do you find yourself in Bela Bela (Limpopo) when you are supposed to be with Mnangagwa (the president of Zimbabwe)? You know he doesn’t give me money to operate you guys and I am operating you with my limited budget. You can’t appreciate that. You are killing my health system. You are killing my system. When you guys are sick, I’m hearing these days you just say let’s cross Limpopo River there’s a MEC there that’s running a charity department. I am going to tell you something that is truthful and painful ...

Dr Phophi Ramathuba then proceeds to tell the suffering patient the “painful truth” that the census determines the health budget that is now diverted to border crossers from Zimbabwe and Mozambique. She continues with her bitter diatribe to her captive audience: “Now, instead of using the budget for what it’s meant for, I’m operating for what Mnangagwa is supposed to do, and that is why when my people want health services they can’t get ... You are not counted, you are illegal, you are abusing me, it is unfair.”

I had prepared a different column for today, but seeing this hateful speech to a poor, desperate patient, I thought the SA public needs to know what is happening in their name. First of all, what happened to the oath these doctors swear to uphold? Here’s one from the SA Medical Association (Sama): “I solemnly pledge to dedicate my life to the service of humanity” and “I will not permit considerations of age ... ethnic origin ... nationality ... race ... or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient.” That’s right, in the desperate struggle for life, the last thing on a doctor’s mind should be where you come from or whether your government screwed up its national health system.

That’s right, in the desperate struggle for life, the last thing on a doctor’s mind should be where you come from or whether your government screwed up its national health system.

It is a patient waiting for an operation and you decide to give her a lecture on the failures of the president of Zimbabwe? Seriously? There is a good chance that the reason the public health system in that province and everywhere else is under strain is not the small percentage of Zimbabweans crossing the border desperate for health and life; it is the wholesale corruption and mismanagement of public health resources by South Africans themselves. The kind of corruption that sees Gift of the Givers (led by a Pakistani-born immigrant) drilling boreholes around SA hospitals so that health personnel and patients can have something as elementary as water.

I am not sure what sickens me more. This morally bankrupt doctor-turned-politician or the giggling acolytes around her enjoying the telling-off of this desperate patient. Yes, her audience is not simply the one awaiting an operation; it is the South Africans around the hospital bed who need to hear who our public health funds are really meant for. Not one of them has the conscience or courage to stand up to this tyrant for their own jobs would surely be on the line.

In a new research project, I lead a team examining the experiences of African nationals from other African countries working in SA universities. It has been an emotionally taxing time doing these interviews with people who talk about walking on campuses feeling that they have “a target on our backs”. In one question I ask these African nationals to account for their contribution to SA. They teach thousands of South African undergraduate students every year in fields ranging from metallurgical and mining engineering to architecture and mathematics education.

They have together supervised and graduated many hundreds of black South Africans with masters and doctoral degrees. They produces volumes of research that give our universities life-saving applications in fields such as the agricultural sciences (for example, Nigerian-born Linus Opara at Stellenbosch), medical chemistry (Zambian-born Kelly Chibale at UCT) and cancer diagnostics (lLesotho-born Tebello Nyokong at Rhodes). The combined contributions of other African academics to health, education and development far outweigh whatever service the mean-spirited Dr Ramathuba might be thinking she offers to a neighbour in a Bela Bela hospital.

Right now, I am waiting to see whether Ramathuba will be disciplined by the medical profession and fired by her political party. If not, her continuance in the job will tell you a lot about the kind of country we have become.