A week ago, Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba came under fire from social justice activists for a video that went viral, in which she was chastising a Zimbabwean patient for using South African healthcare facilities for free.
Ramathuba raised the issue that the government funded hospitals based on the South African citizens and permanent residents included in its census, but that these resources were being stretched by Zimbabwean immigrants, most of them undocumented, who were flocking into SA to receive medical treatment due to the collapse of the Zimbabwean public health system.
The video resulted in a polarising debate about immigrants accessing free public services in SA.
There are two issues that must be addressed. The first is that Ramathuba’s conduct reeks of populism and was intended not to address an important issue, but to humiliate the Zimbabwean patient.
What she did is not just humiliating but downright unethical. No-one should be treated like that — immigrant or not, documented or not.
But this is the logical conclusion of the rising anti-immigrant sentiment that has found root in SA.
In fact, I want to posit that the reason she gave her monologue in camera is because she knew it would be published.
She wanted to curry favour with a South African electorate that is anti-immigrant and which rewards anti-immigrant sentiments as evidenced in the electoral victories of parties like ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance, which I believe are downright xenophobic.
That is what was at the heart of the Ramathuba’s cruel performance.
But, on the other hand, she is raising important questions that must not be dismissed, the key one being the unsustainability of SA dealing with the consequences of a failed Zanu-PF regime.
It is a fact that Zanu-PF is a cancer that has eaten away at everything good and possible in Zimbabwe.
It has destroyed not just the country’s economy and politics, but also its possibility of a future defined by recovery.
It has institutionalised violence and governs with a margin of terror.
Its actions, more than ecological and other challenges, are predominantly responsible for forcing Zimbabweans to be scattered across the diaspora.
Everywhere in the world, Zimbabweans are reduced to figures of pathos, their lives devoid of value.
And the cause must be placed at the feet of not just President Emmerson Mnangagwa, but the entirety of Zanu-PF as an institution.
In our justified condemnation of the MEC, we must not trivialise the entirety of the argument that she is raising.
Zanu-PF must take responsibility for the state of Zimbabwe. And we must constantly insist on holding it accountable.
We must also hold the ANC accountable, because for decades SA has benefited from the collapse of Zimbabwe.
Our economy has benefited from cheap Zimbabwean labour which is exploited for profit maximisation.
Our institutions, especially universities, have benefited from the brain drain in Zimbabwe.
I can tell you that, personally, ALL three of my Masters degrees were supervised and co-supervised by Zimbabwean academics — Prof Trynos Gumbo at UJ, Prof Ricky Mukonza at TUT and Dr Dennis Choruma at Rhodes University.
I’m a product of the Zimbabwean brain drain that has benefited our country.
When it was the educated and “desirable” immigrants coming into our country, everyone was quiet, including the ANC.
Today, when it is poor, uneducated and illiterate Zimbabweans coming, there is a problem.
This speaks to not only which Zimbabwean life we value but also to how the ANC government has benefited from and exploited Zimbabwe.
In all this, those who have paid the price are the people — as is always the case.