Disappearing DD

The very picture of health was he, until DD had to deal with his own party [View this email in your browser]( October 19, 2021 [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there, It was Alfred Hitchcock who once remarked: “I think everyone enjoys a nice murder ... provided he is not the victim.” And everybody loves a good plot, especially in the ANC, which seems to have [an abundance of aspirant poisoners](. Or so it appears, according to former and current party leaders. All that rosy-cheeked vim and vigour the deputy president attained during his sojourn in Russia was bound to wear off while dealing with miscreants within and outside the ANC. David “DD” Mabuza’s public health chronicles begin in 2015. The then ANC Mpumalanga chairperson claimed he was poisoned after accepting food at his birthday celebrations in August in Bushbuckridge. Given the [political intrigues and general skullduggery]( in the province, the story is not too far-fetched, unlike former president Jacob Zuma’s poisoned tea yarn during the turbulence of his marriage to MaNtuli. On Tuesday, 56 people appeared in court on charges related to the alleged hostage situation, or rather enforced audience, members of the ANC endured at the hands of some aggrieved military veterans on Friday. The arrested include Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association members and former members of the PAC’s Azanian People’s Liberation Army and Azapo’s Azanian National Liberation Army. Advocate Dali Mpofu, together with four other defence teams, will be representing the group accused of holding two cabinet ministers, Thandi Modise and Mondli Gungubele, and deputy minister Thabang Makwetla, against their will for more than three hours. Modise said they did not feel their lives were in danger during the incident, adding that, “There was no blood and no one touched us.” Despite the large number of accused, the matter is [being heard at a small court inside Kgosi Mampuru prison]( as opposed to the bigger court in the capital, without an official reason proffered about the choice of venue. The drama began on Thursday at about 7pm at the St George’s Hotel, when a group of military veterans demanded an audience with President Cyril Ramaphosa and his deputy, Mabuza, to address their concerns. Above all else, Mabuza’s spell as deputy president is, arguably, associated with his propensity for Houdini-like disappearances. His public appearances are rare and, throughout his tenure, questions have been raised over his lengthy absences. As far back as 2018, [in our Cabinet Report Cards]( (in which we, unironically, gave DD a D), we wrote of The Cat: “We can hypothesise that Ramaphosa would prefer not to rely on Mabuza to fulfil any official engagements that he cannot. This is in stark contrast to Ramaphosa’s conduct when he was the deputy president; from brokering a peace deal in Lesotho to bidding for the rugby World Cup, Silili was everywhere. When Mabuza has been on show, it has generally been for something uncontroversial.” The search party’s calls have been especially loud when he has sought medical treatment outside of the country. Reportedly beset with complications arising from the 2015 poisoning attempt, Mabuza has infamously travelled to Russia on multiple occasions to visit his doctors. [His most recent six-week trip]( coincided with the worst civil unrest we’ve seen in a democratic South Africa. From an African perspective, Mabuza’s overseas treatment fits into a much-derided tradition: medical tourism. The continent has been home to a flock of leaders who are notorious for turning their noses up at their own healthcare systems in favour of overseas options. Zimbabwe’s former long-serving president Robert Mugabe famously joined the great presidential palace in the sky while receiving treatment in Singapore. He had made the trip to the Southeast Asian island regularly during his presidency, before he was ousted in 2017’s soft coup. On one occasion, his spokesperson insisted that there was no expertise available in Mugabe’s own country to treat the medical condition that compelled him to regularly rest his eyes during meetings — which some people might interpret as sleeping. Mugabe is by no means the only leader to perish far from his home soil. Michael Sata (Zambia), Malam Bacai Sanhá (Guinea-Bissau), Meles Zenawi (Ethiopia), Omar Bongo (Gabon) and Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia) all succumbed to their ailments while in Europe over the past dozen years. Malawi’s Bingu wa Mutharika, meanwhile, died in South Africa. (Tanzania’s opposition party might argue we should add John Magufuli to the list. Reports strongly indicate he spent time in Kenya at the very least shortly before he was officially pronounced dead in Dar es Salaam.) Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos is unsurprisingly another prominent example and was known to have regular checkups in Spain during his 38-year reign. But no country has embraced medical tourism as closely as Nigeria. Then president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would create a power vacuum when he travelled to Saudi Arabia for treatment in 2009 without establishing a proper contingency plan for his absence. A few years later, governor Godswill Akpabio talked up a new $76-million hospital in his province — only to jet off to the UK when he was involved in a car accident. Current President Muhammadu Buhari built his 2015 campaign around several strong promises, one of which was to end medical tourism. In 2017, he spent 104 consecutive days receiving treatment in London. The reason for this proclivity in many countries is not hard to figure out. The more the elites abscond from their own facilities, the less money is pumped back into them. It’s a vicious cycle, which many have failed to break free of. A 2016 Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority report, for instance, found that Nigerians spend $1-billion on medical tourism — which equates to 20% of the total public healthcare budget not being invested back into the economy. Budgetary priorities tend to be just as problematic. According to the World Bank, most African countries spend less than 5% of their GDP on healthcare. Most developed countries come in at about 10%. The money that is spent is also susceptible to the legacy of corruption in many countries; the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 15% to 20% of healthcare spending on the continent is lost to graft. The consequence of these numbers is a debilitating brain drain that has seen many of the continent’s brightest doctors seek to ply their trade elsewhere. As a result almost every African country fails to meet the WHO’s recommended doctor-to-population ratio of 10:10 000. Monday was the third day in which Mabuza took to the streets of the embattled Tshwane region in an attempt to woo voters. On the campaign trail in Atteridgeville, the deputy president showered the angry residents with party T-shirts and headscarves while pleading with them not to “abandon the ANC”. When a truck full of freebies in the form of ANC T-shirts and doeks failed to do the trick, Mabuza looked a quarter to falling to his knees begging for forgiveness over the governing party’s failings, as hostile Tshwane residents refused to buy into what he was selling — a promise to do better after the 1 November local government elections. Hopefully he doesn’t overdo it and need to take advantage of Moscow’s hospitality again. Until tomorrow, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Subscribe now]( Enjoy The Ampersand? Share it with your friends [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( [Share]( [Share]( Copyright © 2021 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. Our mailing address is: Mail & Guardian Media LTD 25 Owl St BraamfonteinJohannesburg, Gauteng 2001 South Africa [Add us to your address book]( Want to change which mails you receive from Mail & Guardian? [Update your preferences]( to tell us what you do and don't want to receive, or [unsubscribe](. *If you are a paying subscriber, we recommend updating your preferences rather than unsubscribing, as you may miss important information relating to your subscription.