Recently video evidence surfaced of the Limpopo health Minister Dr Phophi Ramathuba, violating the Hippocratic Oath which obliges Doctors/Physicians to “abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or women, bond or free”.  In the video Dr Phophi is seen on the bedside of an immigrant basically speaking about the strain immigrants are placing on South Africa’s health system. 

She is seen in the video for a long while speaking on the difficulty the health system is under squarely because of immigrants in the country. She is seen interrogating and ridiculing a patient in a bed and cross questioning a sick patient even asserting that immigrants “go and cross the border because there is a charity minister there” she was referring to herself as that minister. She complains about her limited budget and implicates census in her verbal assault alluding that the Census stats counts the population and when immigrants are in South Africa they are spending the resources that could be going to south Africans, she lastly states that Mnagagwa the president of Zimbabwe should be taking care of the patient not her. The biggest issue here is the blame on the failing health system being placed on immigrants when there are issues of corruption and looting. The other more pertinent problem is that the Dr is in violation of the code of conduct of a health professional which obliges health practitioners to assist patients regardless of race, tribe or ethnicity. 

The manner in which the Dr stood next to the bed with other doctors around the patients bed, humorously asking the seemingly weak patient, where she is from asking her if she speaks shona and referring her to her President Mnangagwa is a clear violation of the section of the code of conduct that requires health practitioners to have respect for the patients’, dignity and worth. In the video multiple times the Dr ridicules the patient and other practitioners around are seen laughing and agreeing. 

The Health Minister may have had issues  that needed to be to raised on her strained budget but it's a total human rights violation for her to take out her frustrations on a strained budget on a vulnerable person. The woman is a vulnerable immigrant who is in a hospital bed, if the Dr had issues she could easily take them up in the right channels instead of ridiculing a patient lying in bed. 

This is also not the first time Dr Phophi has carelessly spoken to people she is meant to be protecting. In the beginning of 2022, she again was in the headlines for telling young girls "To the girl child I say: Open your books, and close your legs. Don't open your legs, open your books.." while addressing young girls in a high school, this was meant to be a remedy to stop teenage pregnancy.

This MEC needs to be stopped. Please sign this petition calling for Dr Phophi to go!