South Africa’s Health Minister has lashed African leaders who go abroad to seek medical treatment.
Aaron Motsoaledi was speaking at a World Health Organization conference at Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls where the host 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe frequently travels visits eye specialists in Singapore.
ends intro
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says African leaders travel abroad for medical attention because they are not confident of receiving adequate treatment at home.
Because they can afford to do this, they are not motivated to provide the resources to improve domestic medical services and infrastructure.
He says Africa’s the only continent where leaders travel abroad for health reasons.
They should be ashamed of this and should be promoting their own hospitals, clinics and specialist doctors.
This year, Nigeria’s Muhamadu Buhari has spent no less than five months in British hospitals. He still has not revealed to his people what ails him.
Last year, Buhari rounded on wealthy compatriots going to European, Asian or American hospitals, dismissing them as health tourists.
Outgoing Angola President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos has fallen into this category.
So have Presidents Patrice Talon of Benin and Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe officially opened the conference addressed by Motsoaledi.
He was not at the gathering at Victoria Falls when the South African minister spoke.