Former Malawian President Joyce Banda says some African leaders are more focused on occupying leadership roles than serving their citizens.
She was responding to the debate in South Africa around what Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba said to a Zimbabwean national who was admitted in hospital in the province.
Ramathuba has this week received criticism for telling the patient at a Bela Bela hospital that South Africa is not running a charity organisation.
She said Zimbabwean patients are not factored in the Provincial Health Department.
Banda has urged African leaders to address challenges facing their respective countries.
“The main issue that we are faced with is that of poverty and helplessness of our young people. The lack of job opportunities if this continent of 54 countries. Each country will be busy finding ways of creating job opportunities,” adds Banda.
Factors around immigration and how to best deal with it:
Meanwhile, MEC Ramathuba has defended her statement.
Ramathuba says, “I do stand by its content because I need to share that understanding that we [are] not doing anything to our surgical backlog. People are abusing the system when they hear that the MEC is coming to this district with special care.”
“They leave their country, enter SA illegally [and] come to our hospitals. The South Africans whom we did this budget for are unable to get operated because they are still flooding even our initiatives. This is an initiative outside our daily work,” says MEC Ramathuba.
The video below is reporting more on the story:
