PRETORIA – The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) fronted by Julius Malema on Wednesday called for the removal of Limpopo Health MEC, Phophi Ramathuba for inhuman comments towards a foreign patient.
In a viral video in circulation on social media, Ramathuba is heard passing harsh comments towards a Zimbabwean patient seeking medical help in South Africa.
Reacting to the incident, the EFF called Ramathuba “cynical, arrogant and morally bankrupt” for her “inhumane comments” towards the patient at a hospital in Bela Bela.
The following is the full statement released on Wednesday by the Economic Freedom Fighters:
“The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) calls for the immediate removal of the cynical, arrogant and morally bankrupt MEC of Health in Limpopo, Phophi Ramathuba, for her inhumane comments towards a sickly patient in a hospital in Bela Bela, Limpopo.
“Ramathuba, whose cruelty reveals she is posturing as a medical Doctor was recorded humiliating and cross-examining a patient who was due for surgery, because she was receiving medical care in South Africa while she hails from Zimbabwe.
“The hateful comments, which were in full view of individuals who laughed at the merciless shaming of a patient, reveal a shocking hatred for a fellow human being by someone tasked with protecting and saving human life.
“The Afrophobic attack by Ramathuba on a bed-ridden patient is cruel and malicious, and has no justification. It is a slippery slope, because health rights are human rights, and to attempt to rationalise the denial of the provision of healthcare on the basis of someone’s nationality, will lead to gross human violations whose logic is pure hatred.
“It will graduate from denial of healthcare on the basis of nationality, to the denial of healthcare on the basis of tribe and provincial origin, and ultimately a denial of healthcare on the basis of one’s contribution to the tax revenue that is meant to ensure that all people are provided with basic human rights.
Ramathuba is a reckless populist, who is joining the pretentious and opportunistic campaign by the ANC to shift the responsibility of a collapsing healthcare sector and degeneration in all spheres of South Africa on so-called foreign nationals.
She is taking cue from her xenophobic principle Aaron Motsoaledi, and the various officials within the ANC, who are scapegoating their failures in governance on African people.
“We call on the removal of Ramathuba as an MEC, as she has clearly violated the integrity of a patient and undermined the Hippocratic Oath, by causing intentional harm and humiliation to a patient.
“She is unfit to hold that office, and must be released to practice her hatred of African people outside of the levers of state power.”
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