Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba justifies payment comments to patient

Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba said that her instruction for a foreign national patient to pay for elective surgery at a government hospital was legal.

Ramathuba has been criticized for remarks she made to a patient at a hospital in Bela Bela in Limpopo.

A video has been widely shared showing the MEC telling a woman that she should be getting medical care from Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.

“You speak Shona and then how do you find yourself in Bela Bela when you are supposed to be with Mnangagwa. You know, he doesn’t give me money to operate on you guys and I’m operating on you with my limited budget. No, you can’t appreciate that,” Ramathuba said in the video.

The MEC insists that undocumented immigrants are putting strain on the health care system in her province.

“Minister Motsoaledi was feeling the pain. I used to go with him to Musina to see the problem there, so you won’t be discharged until you settle your bill. We must charge you,” Ramathuba said in the video.

These remarks have ignited conversation on social media on access to government healthcare and who should pay.

But Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba said that her instruction was justified.

“When you are a pensioner, you are unemployed, [or] you are a pregnant woman, that’s when we are saying you get free services. Those immigrants who are legal in the country, we also classify them just like South Africans, we subsidize them. But when you are illegal in the country, we can’t even classify you. The law says we must bill you,” the MEC said.

She has stood by her remarks, saying that her department does not have the budget to provide healthcare for South Africans and undocumented migrants.

Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for her immediate removal from office, saying that her comments are cruel, unjustified and Afro-phobic.

-EWN

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