Reject populist, hypocritical and contradictory statement by Wilmot James

Thursday, 02 October 2014

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Western Cape notes the view expressed by Dr Wilmot James of the Democratic Alliance (DA) regarding the shortage of Doctors in South Africa. Dr James bases his argument on a comparison of doctor-to-patient ratio in relation to South Africa and other member states of BRICS.

With reference to his argument, Dr James states: "I will write to the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, requesting a meeting with him to discuss ways to increase capacity and funding in order to produce more qualifying graduates to enter the medical health profession and ensure our doctor to patient ratio increases".

Previous contradictory statements by former MEC of Health and leader of DA in the Western Cape, Theuns Botha stated: "The Western Cape decided not to participate in the national government's project to send doctors to Cuba for training due to the fact that the training is offered in Cuba is not an appropriate Health system in the Western Cape."

Lastly, Dr James further suggests that: "The DA believes our country should be open to hiring foreign medical professionals to supplement our need whilst we are in the process of growing our own timber".

The above contradictory statements do not come as a surprise to the SACP in the Western Cape, this inconsistency relating to critical matters affecting South Africans has come to characterise the leadership of the DA. If Dr James' assertions are correct then perhaps he should commence his quest by writing to the former MEC of the Western Cape, if indeed South Africa requires an increase of trained health graduates, the DA should expend more time on altering its neo-liberal stance towards the generosity and solidarity Cuba's Medical Internationalism.

Of certainty is the capacity of South African universities not being able to produce the higher number of health professionals required to balance the doctor-patient ratio. There are however progressive interventions developed by Department of Higher Education and Training in conjunction with the Department of Health which includes the de-merging of Medunsa from university of Limpopo.

The SACP in the Western Cape decries this nonsensical anti-progressive posture of the DA leadership. The DA in the province has maintained its stance in refusing to allow working class students from studying medicine in Cuba, moreover its administration unilaterally decided to terminate contracts of Cuban engineers who were in the Western Cape under the ANC government.

The SACP in the Province calls on Dr James to retract his populist and hypocritical statement, furthermore the Party demands that the DA desist from political posturing to the detriment of working class students yearning to study medicine, failure to do so will further degenerate the doctor-to-patient ratio in the Province.

Statement issued by Masonwabe Sokoyi, SACP Western Cape Provincial Spokesperson, October 2 2014

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