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EFF Slams ‘Blame Foreigners’ Narrative as Tembisa Hospital Scandal Exposes Real Disease: Corruption
While some South Africans have been marching outside hospitals demanding the removal of foreign nationals from public wards, over R2 billion was quietly looted inside one of Gauteng’s biggest health facilities, Tembisa Hospital.
According to a new Special Investigating Unit (SIU) interim report, the hospital was allegedly bled dry by coordinated criminal syndicates operating hand-in-hand with officials from the Gauteng Department of Health.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says this should finally put to rest the idea that foreign nationals are the reason hospitals are failing.
“Patients Aren’t Dying Because of Migrants, They’re Dying Because of Thieves”
In a fiery statement, EFF spokesperson Sinawo Thambo accused government officials of scapegoating migrants to distract from their own crimes.
“Patients are dying in overcrowded and under-resourced hospitals not because of foreign nationals,” Thambo said,
“but because the money meant to buy beds, medicines, and equipment is looted by politicians and their criminal partners.”
The party says Tembisa Hospital is not an isolated case, it’s merely the most exposed example of a nationwide network of looters turning healthcare into a personal ATM.
Meanwhile, Anti-Immigrant Groups Are Marching at the Wrong Enemy
Movements like Operation Dudula have made headlines over the past two years for staging protests at public clinics, sometimes physically blocking undocumented migrants from receiving care.
Two realities now stand next to each other:
| Public Narrative | What the SIU Report Reveals |
|---|---|
| “Hospitals are collapsing because foreigners are abusing the system.” | Over R2 billion stolen from just ONE hospital by South Africans in office. |
| “Migrants overwhelm resources.” | Resources never reached patients they were siphoned by syndicates. |
| “Kick out foreigners to fix healthcare.” | Kick out corrupt officials to fix healthcare. |
Healthcare workers have repeatedly warned that denying treatment based on nationality is unlawful and dangerous, especially in a country with a painful history of xenophobic violence.
Tembisa’s Long Shadow: Even the Presidency Isn’t Untouched
This scandal also touches politically sensitive ground. Earlier reports linked investigations into Tembisa Hospital contracts to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s nephew, Maumela, though the president publicly denied any association.
The late Babita Deokaran, a whistleblower from inside the Gauteng Department of Health, was shot dead after flagging suspicious payments at Tembisa. Her warnings are now echoed in the SIU’s findings.
The Real Question: Will South Africans Finally Point Their Anger Upwards, Not Sideways?
The EFF’s intervention sheds light on a painful truth: South Africans have been taught to fight one another while the real looters sit in boardrooms.
If R2 billion can disappear unnoticed from a single public hospital, imagine what’s happening nationwide.
The SIU has opened the file.
Now the country must decide, do we keep blaming migrants in waiting rooms, or do we finally start chasing the criminals in executive offices?
Because until we do, our hospitals will remain theatres of theft instead of places of healing.
{Source: IOL}
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