Zimbabwe embassy on Limpopo MEC’s remarks to patient : ‘You could have been more diplomatic’

August 30, 2022
| Report Focus News
Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba has hit back. Image: Alaister Russell

The Zimbabwean embassy  in South Africa says it is shocked by the comments made by Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba to a patient a week ago.

Ramathuba sparked controversy last week after a video emerged of her chiding a Zimbabwean patient at a Limpopo hospital that immigrants were straining the provincial healthcare system.

“We believe platforms exist for engagement and we subscribe to full utilisation of appropriate channels and platforms for the good of our two countries,” the embassy tweeted.

The MEC was filmed in a video that surfaced online showing her confronting a hospital patient about getting medical attention in SA.

The embassy said it “watched with shock and disbelief [the manner] in which the member of the executive council of health, Limpopo province, spoke to a Zimbabwean national who happened to be a patient in a hospital in the province”.

“The embassy has been in contact with the government of SA, through the department of international relations and co-operation, to who it has conveyed the concerns of the government of Zimbabwe on the comments made by the MEC,” it said.