SOUTH Africa’s Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has lashed out at Zimbabwe, accusing it of presiding over a decaying health system that has seen patients clogging the neighbouring country’s hospitals.
Zimbabwe’s health system has deteriorated over the years, with the government struggling to provide basic medication such as painkillers in public hospitals, yet it spends millions of United States dollars on other sectors of the economy.
Motsoaledi, who was appointed Health minister on July 4, likened some African leaders to a father who sends his children to eat next door without engaging the neighbour.
He said this while speaking at an African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee Lekgotla in Benoni last week.
“They just close their eyes and let people cross the border [into South Africa] . . . It’s unfair. And I want to say this publicly even though [it’s] sensitive. When [then Limpopo province Member of the executive council for health] Phophi Ramathuba was being attacked by all and sundry, during that period when she was being attacked, she received a letter from a patient sent to South Africa by a GP [general practitioner] in Zimbabwe inscribed, ‘The lady has got cancer, stage 4 already . . . please give that lady a pint of blood,” he said.
“In other words, one country asking another country . . . I will tell you why that is abhorrent to me. Blood is not manufactured. We get it from the population. There are human beings in Zimbabwe and they have blood, lots of it, for that matter.”
He added: “All they need to do if they don’t have the technology of taking that blood is to come to South Africa [and say], ‘Can you help us with people who are going to get people to donate blood in our country, instead of closing their eyes and throwing their people over the border’. It’s unfair.”
Ramathuba came under attack in 2022 after taking a swipe at Mnangagwa’s governance failures.
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She complained that the Zimbabwean authorities were burdening South Africa’s health delivery system.
On June 14, Ramathuba was elected the first female Premier of Limpopo after her party, the ANC, won a majority of the seats in the provincial legislature.
Zimbabweans have been flocking to the neighbouring country for better healthcare services following the deterioration of the country’s health sector, with Limpopo province being the nearest port of call.
Motsoaledi said African leaders neglected their health systems because when they get sick, they are treated abroad.
“Part of the reason is that heads of State on this continent and it is the only continent, (where) when they are sick, they go to other continents and leave their nationals alone. We have asked that that has to stop,” he said.
The late former President Robert Mugabe would make several trips per year to Asian countries to get treatment.
He died in September 2019 in Singapore, where he had gone to seek medical treatment.
Critics say the deterioration of the health sector is due to underfunding by central government which has seen development partners stepping in some areas to rescue the situation. Thousands of skilled professionals have migrated to other countries in search of better working conditions.
