The bullying tactics of ANC-MP Goqwana

Witwatersrand University faced fake-angry racism rant from black MP Monwabisi Goqwana’s claim that it ‘caters for a particular race group”…

Sept 17 2010 - The Witwatersrand University’s communications manager, Shirona Patel, said today that it was ‘regrettable’ that nobody had asked them why their Health Sciences Faculty dean Prof Helen Laburn was unable to attend the Parliament’s Portfolio committee on health yesterday -  and thus also could not respond to the ‘irresponsible racism-charges” raised by its chairman Monwabisi Goqwana yesterday. (email: mgoqwana@parliament.gov.za )

The ANC parliamentary health committee chairman Monwabisi Goqwane’s carefully stage-managed rant – he used such bullying tactics before:

Before he launched his racist ‘fake-angry’rant, Goqwana in fact already knew that three of the deans from medical faculties – Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch and Free State - were unable to attend to the parliamentary summons:

• Thus in their absence, the Eastern Cape MP thus was able to carry out his carefully-stage-managed, faux-angry rant during with the remaining deans had to face a barrage of racism-accusations from Goqwana and were denied the chance to present their requested documents to the parliamentary committee.
• contact him: mgoqwana@parliament.gov.za

The deans,  Goqwana said angrily, were summonsed ‘to discuss the shortage of doctors, if they were able to produce enough doctors for 48-49m South Africans;  why medical graduates left the country’. He brought the meeting to a halt and ordered all “non-elected members”, including the media, to leave the room. Some journalists refused to leave, saying South Africans had a right to know about the decision. After a debate, journalists were allowed to stay.Yet the parliamentary committee chairman Khaya Mfenyana had by then also already confirmed that ‘the absent deans had apologised, and said they would be overseas, so to us there were genuine reasons."

‘Message of intolerance from the parliamentary committee:’

Goqwana said the committee ‘wanted to hear why medical graduates left the country and why South Africa had such a small number of doctors catering for "70% of the population". Actually he already has the answers: white graduates are shunned for work under the black-economic empowerment laws of the country… and black graduates leave for better working conditions abroad. What Goqwana really wanted to know but did not say outright however, was why the universities did not graduate more black doctors.

Goqwana then abruptly brought the meeting to an end, saying that the deans would not be allowed to make their presentations, because three "key universities" that previously catered "for a particular race group in South Africa" had not attended.

"When we are discussing these things, shortage, quality [of doctors], all those things encompass whether we've transformed and are responding to the challenges of South Africa," said Goqwana. The result clearly left the deans who had attended frustrated.

Professor Wynand van der Merwe, dean of Stellenbosch University's health sciences faculty, also said the decision "sent a message of intolerance on the part of the committee, in the absence of exactly what they wanted from us". http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article661051.ece/Med-school-deans-fail

Gogwana used identical bullying tactics before: 

In May, after reports that 180 premature babies had died at Mthatha’s Academic Hospital in the Eastern Cape, he had demanded senior management for a personal report-back  at parliament in Cape Town. However the only doctor able to attend at such short notice was Dr Siva Pillay, superintendent-general of the Eastern Cape Department of Health. He explained that the medical staffers were ‘under serious financial constraints and one of the austerity measures is on travel.” However Goqwana blasted him from a dizzy height, saying that some of the senior managers could have ‘stayed with relatives in the Western Cape’ to save travel costs..  Pillay commented afterwards that “it was unfair on me because, prior to coming, here I had communicated the difficulties that we are facing”. But Goqwana issued a final blast: warning that “you are actually taking yourself into bigger problems. Why don’t we just say we are calling the meeting off, you will be informed when we will be calling you”…  http://www.epherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=594058&utm_source=timessaguardian.com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=AFL_TrafficShare

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Prof Helen Laburn, dean of Witwatersrand Health Sciences Faculty, was unable to attend parliament’s health-portfolio meeting because she’d made earlier commitments which the parliamentary committee had known about in advance. Yet during her absence, racism-claims were leveled by ANC-MP Monwabisi Goqwana on Sept 16 2010. http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=199339&sn=Marketingweb+detail&pid=90389

Patel explained that Prof Laburn was only given four days to respond to two proposed dates for this meeting; however she was not in the country for the first date 8 September, and also had important prior commitments for the second date, 15 September. Laburn issued a statement yesterday as follows:  

• "It is certainly not true that our faculty caters for 'a particular race group' in South Africa as is claimed by Dr Monwabisi Goqwana, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee.  This is an irresponsible statement which we openly refute, and we have data to prove that this is not the case. However, we appreciate the important role that both Parliament and the Portfolio Committee on Health exercises in the country.  We would be happy to share information about our innovative curriculum, our quest to grow the number of health professionals in the country and the transformation of our student body.”

She had told parliament of her inability to attend… Prof Laburn said she wanted parliament to know that faculty deans need ‘adequate notification and a proper briefing from the relevant persons to know exactly what is expected from the Deans."  Prof Laborn had advised the chairman of the parliamentary committee of medical Deans, Khaya Mfenyana in August of her inability to attend and had also forwarded her apologies for not being able to meet on either date.

• “She found this to be acceptable as previous meetings had often progressed without all the Medical Deans being present.  If indeed Mr Mfenyana found this not to be acceptable, the Dean or the University should have been alerted three weeks ago.” Statement issued by Shirona Patel, Communications Manager, Advancement and Partnerships Division, Wits University, September 16 2010 http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=199339&sn=Marketingweb+detail&pid=90389

Impeccable background:

Prof Laburn’s background is impeccable: she holds a BSc Honours degree and a PhD from Wits. Prior to her deanship in 2006, Laburn was Head of the School of Physiology at Wits and Professor of Thermal Physiology in that School. She continues to hold an Honorary Professorship in the Brain Function Research Group in the School. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, an Honorary Fellow of the Physiology Society of Southern Africa – awards which recognise her contribution to research in thermal and fetal physiology, and an NRF-rated researcher.

• For several years she was also the only South African who was a foreign member of the Physiological Society (London).

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Related articles: and links:

Monwabisi Goqwana’s stated business activities include his (non-active) directorships at the Philany Polyclinic in Port Elizabeth, the charity group Elias Luphuwana Skills Development Centre; board member of SAIDS; the Gonubie Plot-and-Plan group and the Mozambuza Farming Project.  (The Dutch-based Van der Leij Foundation initiated a training programme for the underprivileged in East London’s  Haven Hills South - 132 project-linked low cost ‘RDP’ units and 318 rental apartments and 70 credit-linked plot-and-plan dwellings. East London Own Haven, trading as Own Haven Housing Association (OHHA) was registered as a Section 21 company (not having share capital), under the South African Companies Act (1973) in January 2001 and began trading mid 2002 to provide affordable, quality rental housing with the support of the Dutch building society, "Woningbouwvereniging Eigen Haard") He also owns the 1,800 square-metre Erf 7846, at Southernwood, Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. He provided no educational background in his parliamentary CV in 2009: http://www.parliament.gov.za/live/content.php?Item_ID=184&MemberID=606

Transformation of the South African workforce under the black-economic-empowerment programme:  

• http://www.dti.gov.za/bee/complete.pdf

US health demands creates foreign brain-drain under “Obama-care” programme:

Tens of thousands of doctors are about to leave their home countries -- where they are often desperately needed -- to come to the United States of Americ after the historic passage of health-care reform legislation in March ordered to provide some 32million presently uninsured poor Americans with health insurance. However there is a shortage of doctors and nurses to meet the demand. There's nowhere for those health professionals to come from except from overseas; the domestic education system simply won't produce enough. Third-world doctors recruited to alleviate sudden shortages at US hospitals http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/11/countries_without_doctors