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- The issue of providing healthcare services to immigrants could have been raised in another way, said President Cyril Ramaphosa.
- His comments followed a video of Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba berating a Zimbabwean patient at Bela-Bela Hospital.
- The president addressed the issue of the widely circulated video during his answers to parliamentary questions on Tuesday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba could have raised the issue of immigrants using South Africa’s healthcare services “in another way”.
Ramathuba came under fire last week when she claimed that Zimbabweans were putting strain on the province’s healthcare system. She was caught on video telling a Zimbabwean patient at Bela-Bela Hospital that the provincial health department was not a charity organisation.
While answering parliamentary questions on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said Ramathuba had “raised an important issue” of how “service delivery is affected by migration”.
READ | ‘Shock, disbelief’: Zimbabwe embassy reacts to Phophi Ramathuba video
“The MEC has raised an important issue that is currently under debate. Of course, she raised it in the presence of a patient, and I guess such an important issue could have been raised in another way,” Ramaphosa said.
He added:
Be that as it may, it has been raised, and it evoke[d] debate in our country… in Zimbabwe, and in the rest of the continent.
The president added that the issue of migration and its impact on service delivery would receive attention at “head of state level”.
News24 previously reported that the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria expressed “shock and disbelief” over the video and had conveyed its concerns through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco).
Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba
Speaking to News24 last week, Ramathuba said the patient was “abusing the system”.
According to a News24 fact check, data from the Limpopo health department showed the department faces mounting medico-legal claims, lack of consequence management, irregular expenditure, and shocking vacancy rates.
We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
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