Let+my+Manto+leave+office,+Mpumelelo+Mkhabela,+City+Press

City Press, Johannesburg, 10/03/2007 19:16 - (SA)
=‘Let my Manto leave office’=


 * Mpumelelo Mkhabela**

THE family of ailing Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has asked President Thabo Mbeki to relieve her of her duties because of her ill-health.

City Press has learnt that Tshabalala-Msimang’s husband, Mendi Msimang, who is also the ANC’s national treasurer, has held at least one meeting with Mbeki to discuss his wife’s health. Msimang yesterday refused to comment. When City Press asked about his request to Mbeki to relieve his wife of her duties, Msimang did not deny this.

Instead, he said: “I do not comment about matters that relate to government.” He referred all enquiries to the Union Buildings.

When contacted about this, presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said: “I am not aware of such a request.”

Asked about the latest news the president’s office had received about Tshabalala-Msimang’s recovery, he said: “I am not aware of anything regarding her recovery.”

Tshabalala-Msimang’s spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said he did not know about the family’s request. He said Tshabalala-Msimang has been in a stable condition.

“She no longer requires constant monitoring but still needs attention,” he said.

Tshabalala-Msimang was admitted to Johannesburg Hospital on February 20. She was treated for anaemia and residual pleural effusion of the lungs – an escape of fluid into the body cavity. She spent three weeks in hospital in October last year to undergo treatment for a lung infection

Tshabalala-Msimang has spent most of her time in the hospital’s intensive care unit, but was moved to an ordinary ward this week. Her doctors said they were happy with her signs of recovery.

But even when she is discharged from hospital, it is highly unlikely that she will return to her post as her family believes she will recover speedily without the stress associated with her office.

Mbeki has resisted calls from the opposition that the health minister be removed from office due to her ill-health. The calls came before her admission to hospital and after she had struggled to express herself while briefing journalists about government’s programme of action in the social cluster which she chairs.

Mbeki has since appointed Transport Minister Jeff Radebe to act as health minister while Tshabalala-Msimang recovers. This was after the health department had asked for an acting minister.

Comments by DA health spokesperson and MP Diane Kohler-Barnard that Mbeki should not allow Tshabalala-Msimang “to die in office” have angered many in the ANC and in broader society. This has resulted in a show of unity among various factions of the party who have declared their support for the health minister. The latest to rally behind her is ANC deputy secretary-general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele.

She raised the issue of Kohler-Barnard’s insensitivities in the ANC Today online publication this week.

“In time, I have come to understand that perhaps what makes Kohler-Barnard and I to respond differently to the illness of Comrade Manto was not because she was less of a normal human being than I.

“Rather, we have been brought up according to different value systems, with her seeing human beings being entitled to live as long as they were of some utilitarian value. This value system gave birth to the apartheid notion of ‘surplus people’,” she wrote.

Mbeki and his predecessor, Nelson Mandela, have created the precedent of not removing those ministers who fall ill and later die while they still hold office. Mthembi-Mahanyele said this was due to their appreciation of the contributions made by late ministers such as Joe Slovo, Steve Tshwete, Dullah Omar and Stella Sigcau.

“Both of them [Mandela and Mbeki] value greatly the comrades who have been developed by the movement in struggle and who have committed themselves faithfully to serve the people. . . ”

“They are moved by a deeply-held feeling that all of us should always find it very difficult to turn our backs on tried-and-tested combatants for our liberation even when they might make mistakes, take wrong positions or otherwise experience difficult times such as ill-health.”

But Mbeki looks set to deviate from this long-held tradition with Tshabalala-Msimang’s family saying it is better for her to step down to allow a stress-free recuperation.

However, even if Mbeki gave in to the family’s request, it is unlikely that Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge will replace Tshabalala-Msimang.


 * From: http://www.news24.com/City_Press/News/0,7515,186-187_2081610,00.html**

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