This past week, we watched as Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba stood at the bedside of a Zimbabwean patient in a hospital in Bela-Bela, smirking and berating the woman. The words are now well documented:  

“You are supposed to be with [Zimbabwean President Emmerson] Mnangagwa; you know he doesn’t give me money to operate. And I’m operating with my limited budget. When you guys are sick, I’m hearing that you just say, let’s cross the Limpopo River, there’s an MEC there who’s running a charity department.”  

The casual use of language and the callousness with which the first person is invoked tells a story all on its own. As she left, Ramathuba said, “Sorry sisi, but you won’t be discharged until you settle your bill. You must charge her.” 

And those around her laughed. 

At the weekend, Ramathuba, not chastened by media coverage, declared that she would repeat the words, given the opportunity. Ramathuba’s justification was that “91%” (sic) of Limpopo residents would support her actions, given the parlous state of health services in the province. On this basis, presumably Ramathuba and the ANC would support the death penalty, given that research has repeatedly shown that South Africans would support its reinstatement, given the high crime rate. 

All around us the state is in collapse as a result of poor governance, corruption, State Capture and disinterest. The lack of care in our society is pervasive. In a week in which we remembered Babita Deokaran’s murder for exposing PPE corruption in the Gauteng health department in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, we heard that R500,000 was spent by a Tembisa hospital on “skinny jeans”. The suspended CEO, Ashley Mthunzi, said it was a “typing error”. This sort of corruption is commonplace and, with or without foreigners, this government does an abysmal job of protecting the vulnerable in our society. 

Ramathuba went on to claim that those who objected to her comments have access to private healthcare. The latter is a cheap argument when Ramathuba presumably continues to draw her MEC salary, together with its perks and a “blue-light brigade” thrown in for good measure. 

But Ramathuba’s insouciance has its roots in her lack of fear: she has no fear of sanction from the political party she represents. So bankrupt is the ANC, so bereft of ideas, that the only way it thinks it might be able to secure future electoral victories is to find a scapegoat. Scapegoating is hardly a new political trick. The environment in our country, with its high levels of unemployment and inequality, is ripe for exploitation by opportunistic politicians. And there is no shortage of opportunistic politicians ready to blame “the other” for appalling social conditions of their own making in the case of the ANC or, in the case of the opposition, to gain an electoral foothold. 

Earlier this year, when members of Operation Dudula staged violent marches against foreigners, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe condoned these actions while President Cyril Ramaphosa meekly condemned such “vigilante-type activity”. Yet, what serious police action was taken as members of Operation Dudula prevented foreign patients and workers from entering the Kalafong hospital in Atteridgeville this week? 

If no one is arrested for such illegal activity and if leaders are either silent or, worse, complicit, it emboldens xenophobic utterances which have now become part and parcel of our political discourse. A few days ago, Gayton McKenzie of the Patriotic Alliance said he would switch off the oxygen of a foreign national to save a South African patient. These crass and cruel words are hard to fathom. 

The Zimbabwean Exemption Permit scheme (ZEP) is due to come to an end in December. That decision — now the subject of litigation — was, it is worth reminding ourselves, a decision of Ramaphosa’s Cabinet. It is easy to blame Aaron Motsoaledi, the minister of home affairs, whose intemperate displays have hardly injected wisdom into the debate, but this was not his decision alone. 

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Madiba’s calm words

In times of uncertainty, leadership matters. Words matter. Who could forget the day of Chris Hani’s assassination when Madiba’s calm words on national television surely brought us back from the edge of the abyss, or Madiba’s words in Durban shortly after his release to a crowd of 200,000:

“My message to those of you involved in this battle of brother against brother is this: take your guns, your knives, and your pangas, and throw them into the sea. Close down the death factories. End this war now!” 

It was a brave speech, only able to be delivered by Mandela, with his gravitas and his understanding of the reach of history in (then) Natal (it is a speech worth revisiting). 

Today, no such ethical leadership exists within the ANC, a shadow of its former self. Instead, the likes of Ramathuba crudely foment violence and hate. 

On Tuesday, Ramaphosa answered parliamentary questions and attempted to address the issue of xenophobia. He said only that Ramathuba had raised an important issue but could have done so differently.

There was no public sanction of Ramathuba, no words to say that her actions do not represent our constitutional values. Referring to migrant labour, Ramaphosa said only that there should be a balancing of labour laws and, “We cannot do these things at the expense of our people [sic].” He went on to say, “We are not a xenophobic nation. The leadership of the party I lead are not xenophobic.” As foreigners are hounded out of their homes and businesses razed, and an MEC humiliates a sick woman, one wonders if the President truly believes what he says sometimes. 

There was no enlightening word on the ZEP matter and no acknowledgement of how this policy decision may serve to further label and strip foreigners of their dignity and provide a free pass to those who seek to scapegoat the other. 

It is these sorts of comments by the President which continue to undermine his authority even as the Presidency itself suffers from a lack of credibility, particularly after the extended silence on the Phala Phala allegations.  

In Parliament on Tuesday, Ramaphosa faced a three-hour barrage of questions from the opposition on the issue. It was an unedifying spectacle of silence. Ramaphosa is well used to adjusting his sails according to the political winds and has, on the Phala Phala forex theft scandal, hidden behind process and so as citizens we are none the wiser. 

On Tuesday he said: “I have responded, and will continue to respond, to all the questions that have been put to me by the relevant authorities. While there are clearly individuals and organisations that seek political mileage on this issue, the most appropriate response is for the law to take its course.”

Except citizens do not seek political mileage, they seek truth and accountability. All Ramaphosa succeeded in doing was cement the lack of trust between himself and the people while feckless ANC MPs cheered him on. 

Added to this, last week, Russian oligarch Igor Sechin, chairperson and CEO of Russia’s largest oil company, the state-owned Rosneft (said to be close to Vladimir Putin), visited South Africa amidst a cloud of suspicion. Scorpio reported that Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, denied that the two men had met or even that the President was aware Sechin was in the country. The Department of International Relations referred all queries to the Presidency. 

More silence. We simply do not know what to believe any longer.  

It is clear that Ramaphosa will tinker around the edges, being sure to cause offence to no one until the ANC conference in December.  

So, we should prepare for more deafening silence on the things that matter as this government, bereft of values, bereft of solidarity for those on the margins, and bereft of imagination, continues to flail in the dark, using the dangerous diversionary tactics of xenophobia and hate, sprinkled with lies. 

Shame on them all. DM