Limpopo Health MEC, Phophi Ramathuba, reveals in an extraordinary moment the true nature of a government that has lost touch with its people and who we intend to be as a country. The tenor of her "outburst' is very much in the populist notion of "sending people back to where they come from'. She places the responsibility for a broken and dysfunctional health care system at the feet of the foreign national. It is worth noting (if not completely relevant) that in the recording there is no distinction made between a person arriving and living in South Africa legally and those that entered the borders illegally.
The "convenient' scapegoating of the foreigners is a dangerously close revision of "the swart gevaar' trope used by the apartheid government to keep the minority white population in a state of fear. Will this idea that the reason that the health care system is not working because it is overburdened by immigrants from neighbouring countries take hold in the minds of our people? A population so scarred by the lack of care and service delivery that they experience at the hands of government in general and the health care system in particular that they will start monitoring the doors of clinics, public hospitals and other public health care facilities and prevent people of a different complexion from entering.
This is not a good place for South Africa to be, not for the sake of geopolitical stability here in our SADC corner, nor from an ethical norms and values point of view, nor from the perspective of simple normal human decency. Not to mention that as South Africans we share a great deal of commonality with our neighbours in terms of language and appearance. If the practice of denying health care to people of the "wrong colour' continues surely some South Africans will also suffer.
This foolish and life-threatening practice has already started fuelled by unsophisticated political speech from politicians that seem to be only interested in gaining political power by whatever means necessary. It appears that the politicians in question do not seem to realise that they will have to answer to the same constituents why the problems don't miraculously disappear when the foreign nationals do. South Africa's public health care system has many challenges that will not be addressed by denying foreign nationals access to the system. These politicians also seemed to be unconcerned with diplomatic relations with our neighbours and the expatriate communities that must live and work in these other countries.
It is important to have a well-managed and humane immigration policy that ensures the people that enter our borders do so legally and within the regime of our laws. It is important and critical that once we have granted someone access to the country that we treat that person humanely, with dignity and with proper concern for their well-being. If the person has the means they should surely pay and there should be systems in place to be able to determine if that is the case. If, however, the person that we have allowed entry into our country legally does not have the means to pay for health care we must ensure that we afford them health care. We cannot be a country that chooses to let another human being die at the doors of a hospital because of the complexion of their skin or because of the language they speak.
?
