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South Africa is suffering from a severe empathy deficit — we need to find a third way of doing politics

Olwethu Mhaga
By Olwethu Mhaga
31 Aug 2022
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As our constitutional democracy dream now appears to be unravelling at the seams, it is no wonder that many are left wounded and shell-shocked. But as a part of a younger generation, I cannot afford such paralysis and lack of imagination about the solutions and possibilities that lie before us.

The humiliating spectacle made of a Zimbabwean patient at the Bela Bela Hospital in Limpopo by the province’s MEC for Health, Phophi Ramathuba, has revealed a new chasm in the opinions of South Africans.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-24-limpopo-health-mec-ramathubas-xenophobic-rant-against-zimbabwean-patient-polarises-sa/

As has become ritual for similarly contentious issues, once again opposing viewpoints have become entrenched as each side has dug into its talking points, each impugning its opposition as being immoral, xenophobic or unpatriotic.

Commentators and leaders alike, whether in politics or civil society, instead of resolving this tension or mediating the inevitable conflict and in a cynical bid for power or popularity, exploit this division by either fanning the flames of prejudice or self-righteously wagging their finger as ordinary citizens sit in the middle, desperately seeking a solution for what has become the pressing issue of immigration.

The inconvenient truth of this whole fiasco is that at their core both sides of the argument make reasonable and valid points. I believe the central lesson that may ultimately arise from this latest scandal is that we have to recognise that no one side holds a monopoly on the truth, especially in issues as complex as modern immigration in light of the provision of taxpayer-funded basic services.

The purpose of this opinion article is not to ventilate on the veracity of the various poles in perspective arising from the recording of MEC Ramathuba’s scolding. However, in order to concretely illustrate the point I wish to make, a brief interlude in that regard is required.

The demeaning lecture delivered by the MEC punctuated by the cackles of the gathered throng at the hospital bed of a patient in need of care, regardless of intent, can only be viewed as deeply unethical and lacking the requisite bedside manners and empathy expected of a senior medical professional and political leader.

However, should the patient have been an illegal immigrant, as has been asserted by the MEC, the patient would of course also be breaking the law. In that regard, although the impulse is understandable, we should not be infantilising nor absolving anyone from responsibility for their actions purely because we rightfully sympathise with their plight and vulnerability.



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The logic that would have us overlook the violations of our laws for the greater good ultimately resulted in the rioting and looting of July 2021, which was rationalised by the vulnerability and economic conditions in which the looters found themselves.

Indeed the forum was inappropriate and the manner in which the MEC addressed the patient was plainly rude and lacking in ubuntu, but is it also possible that the patient’s actions ultimately contribute to the overburdening of our healthcare system at the expense of poor South Africans?

Certainly, the corruption and ineptitude that have come to characterise our public institutions bear the heavy brunt of the fault for these failures, but nevertheless it is dishonest to not include illegal immigration in the discussion.

In a larger sense, I believe this scandal illustrates that the terms and sides that have come to define our disagreements as a country represent false extremes that bear very little resemblance to the pragmatic, non-ideological attitude of the majority of South Africans.

It is for this reason that I argue for a new form of politics. One that seeks unity rather than division, compromise as opposed to ultimatums as well as a genuine desire to understand each other’s perspectives.

It is the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and sheer predictability of our current political discourse that has kept us from finding new and exciting means to tackle the range of challenges we face as a country.

When I address these ideas to most older South Africans I am often left with a sense of disappointment. The air of pessimism and resignation to an inevitable collapse I encounter is often discouraging.

However, with further consideration, I have come to appreciate and understand this perspective by viewing it through the eyes of them growing up in a fundamentally unjust society verging on the precipice of civil war, which then miraculously transformed into the constitutional democracy that so many believed in, hoped and fought for.

As this dream now appears to be unravelling at the seams, it is no wonder that many are left wounded and shell-shocked. But as a part of a younger generation, I cannot afford such paralysis and lack of imagination about the solutions and possibilities that lie before us.

The moment we find ourselves in, marked by hopelessness and dread of the next coming calamity, calls upon us to reimagine solutions to the ills that pervade our society. We require common-sense solutions unencumbered by the strictures of ideology and history, but rather a dogged pursuit of what works.

I have very little patience for politics that seek to exaggerate our differences, resort to tribal identity or exploit irrational prejudices. There has to be a sensible middle-ground solution to the poles that have come to define our political discourse.

There is a compromise possible between pretending that racial inequality can be solved by completely ignoring race and ignoring the concerns of minorities regarding the fairness of affirmative action, quotas and Black Economic Empowerment when the recipients are already a part of an elite.

There is a sensible middle ground possible between having state monopolies provide basic services and privatising the state. There are possible common-sense solutions between the extremes of xenophobic scapegoating and leaving our borders wide open.

Ultimately what I am calling for is empathy from a society which is currently suffering from an empathy deficit. We require the kind of empathy that makes one enquire of oneself, “how would that make me feel?”.

But it will not come through eloquent speeches nor well-constructed op-eds alone. Therefore, in the spirit of ubuntu, I ask you, dear reader, to join me in walking this journey towards a new vision for our country led by a coalition of ordinary pragmatic citizens seeking common ground, despite our multitude of differences. DM

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