The department was reacting to a video in which Limpopo Health MEC, Dr Phophi Ramathuba, berates a patient in a room full of onlookers at a hospital in Bela Bela.

In the video, Ramathuba asks the Zimbabwean patient what a Shona speaker is doing in Bela-Bela when they are supposed to be with [Zimbabwean President Emmerson] Mnangagwa.

Ramathuba later lashes out at the patient for being an illegal migrant and blaming foreign nationals for “killing her health system”.

Spokesperson Foster Mohale said anyone who feels excluded and unfairly treated to approach authorities to report the matter.

"We dispel any myth and misconception of medical xenophobia by public health sector professionals towards migrants."

"We acknowledge that the public healthcare system is struggling in some areas to meet the healthcare needs of the citizens and reduce the backlogs due to the unpredictably high number of undocumented migrants from neighbouring countries seeking healthcare services in the country, other than the asylum-seekers and refugees.

"However, this does not mean that all services are free, because only primary healthcare services are provided free of charge, but higher levels of care are subject to a fee."

Meanwhile, the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) has called for the immediate removal of the MEC.

"We think this is a flagrant abuse of power. She has no defence because she is a member of the governing party. She should raise these issues at a policy level because the ANC government has the power to change policy decisions on the treatment of foreign nationals in public hospitals.

“Her behaviour seems like she is bullying the patient and the patient is not responsible for designing and implementing government policy,” says the union’s general-secretary Lerato Mthunzi.

Jacaranda News