The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for the sacking of a top government official, who was captured on video ridiculing a sick Zimbabwean immigrant saying she is supposed to get help from her president Emmerson Mnangagwa and not South Africans.
Reacting to Phophi Ramathupa’s action on the patient’s bedside where she also told the sick person that she won’t be released from hospital until all medical bills are settled, EFF called for the “immediate removal of the cynical and morally bankrupt MEC of Health in Limpopo, Phophi Ramathupa, for her inhumane comments towards a sickly patient in a hospital in Bela Bela, Limpopo.”
EFF said, “The hateful comments, which were in full view of individuals who laughed at the merciless shaming of the 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 toattempt to rationalize the denial of the provision of healthcare on the basis of someone’s nationality, will lead to gross human rights violations whose logic is pure hatred.”
EFF said 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.
In an interview with a South African media company, Ramathupa remained defiant saying South Africans are no longer getting proper healthcare due to diminishing resources.
She said healthcare facilities are being overwhelmed by foreigners.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has not yet commented about Ramathupa’s outburst.