The South African Health Minister, has stated that African leaders should be ashamed of themselves for seeking medical treatments abroad and abandoning their local health care systems.
The South African Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, while criticizing African leaders including the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe and others stated that Africa is the only continent where the leaders travel abroad for health reasons.
Speaking in Zimbabwe at a World Health Organization, WHO, meeting of African health ministers, Motsoaledi while speaking hours after the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, opened the event added that the involved African leaders should be ashamed.
The South African Health Minister was quoted to have said: “I have said this before and I will say it again: we are the only continent that has its leaders seeking medical services outside the continent, outside our territory. We must be ashamed of that. This is called health tourism. We must promote our own.”
The remark comes after five African leaders have headed out of the continent for medical treatments in the past one year.
The affected African leaders include Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, President Patrice Talon of Benin, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Algeria’s President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.