Controversial South African medical doctor and politician, Dr Phophi Constance Ramathuba, has made history by becoming Limpopo Province’s first female premier.
The former Limpopo MEC of Health was elected during a sitting of the seventh provincial legislature in Lebowakgomo earlier on Friday, 14 June.
In her maiden address as the newly elected premier, Ramathuba, who is a qualified medical doctor, said:
I am humbled and grateful to accept the responsibility entrusted to me as the Premier of this great province. I am deeply honoured for the opportunity to lead Limpopo towards a future of progress, prosperity and unity.
According to IOL, Ramathuba assumed the role of premier following Stanley Mathabatha’s announcement of withdrawal from the position during the 2024 general elections.
Ramathuba stirred controversy in August 2022 when, as MEC, she berated a Zimbabwean female patient seeking surgery at Bela-Bela, a public hospital in South Africa’s Limpopo Province.
She was filmed telling the Zimbabwean woman that foreigners were overburdening South Africa’s health sector. Ramathuba said at the time:
You are supposed to be with Mnangagwa. You are killing my health system. When you guys are sick, you just say, “Let’s cross the Limpopo River; there’s an MEC there who’s running a charity department.”
The remarks attracted varying responses from people of all walks of life with fellow medical practitioners saying Ramathuba had violated the profession’s ethics.
Speaking to CITE after the ANC had nominated Ramathuba for the office of Limpopo Premier but before her election, some political commentators opined that she will continue to pursue her anti-migrant policies.
Dr Vusumuzi Sibanda, leader of the African Diaspora Global Network, said Dr Ramathuba is intolerant and xenophobic. He said:
She may lack tolerance for the migrant community, and her sentiments are quite rampant in the health sector in South Africa.
Dr. (Aaron) Motsoaledi, before he became (current) Minister of Home Affairs, was also engaged in similar conduct.
One can see a tendency to align with populist rhetorical sentiments to be seen as the next best available person for a particular position.
Obviously, from Dr Ramathuba’s sentiments, it is possible that she was positioning herself for a key government post.
We think she was bringing herself up to this position, positioning herself, putting herself on the map so that she could be seen as the right person for the province to deal with issues of people coming from across the border to seek assistance.
So, it is quite plausible that the only logical explanation for why she is now the candidate for the Premier position is because she has been positioning herself by showing that she saves the government a lot of money by chasing migrants. That is very, very unfortunate in a constitutional country like South Africa.
Dr Khanyile Mlotshwa, a critical studies scholar, said Dr Ramathuba may make it difficult for poor migrants to cross into South Africa. Said Mlotshwa:
Considering her strong views against foreign African nationals, it is possible that, if she became in charge of Limpopo province, she might try to create a province that acts as a wall between Johannesburg and the rest of Africa.
I said she might try to create a province that acts as a wall between Johannesburg and the rest of Africa, in that most poor migrants use the road into South Africa.
They will find it difficult, but not impossible, to cross Limpopo province and reach Gauteng province.
I say impossible because her efforts to close out foreign African nationals will fail, just as they failed under the apartheid government.
When Dr Ramathuba expressed those discriminatory sentiments, South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) called for her sacking due to her conduct.
The Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria expressed “shock and disbelief” over the video and conveyed its concerns through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa said that Ramathuba could have raised the issue of immigrants using South Africa’s healthcare services “in another way”.
While answering parliamentary questions, Ramaphosa said Ramathuba had “raised an important issue” of how “service delivery is affected by migration”. He said:
The MEC has raised an important issue that is currently under debate. Of course, she raised it in the presence of a patient, and I guess such an important issue could have been raised in another way, but that as it may, it has been raised and it has evoked debate not only in our country but also in Zimbabwe and also the rest of the continent.
It is a matter that is going to enjoy quite a lot of attendance even as we meet at head of states level to discuss what precisely the movement of people should really entail, what should accompany that in the form of services, health issues criminality and the rule of law, so all those matters are matters that are germane to the whole process of migration.
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