'Changing sides'-SAMA unionist now Limpopo's Health MEC.

She's known countrywide as the strident public health activist voice of the South African Medical Associ­ ation (SAMA), slamming national and provincial health departments wherever there's dismal patient care, drug stock­outs or non­payment of doctor salaries – you name the dysfunction. Now suddenly she's the surprise MEC for Health in one of the country's most bankrupt and historically corruption­ridden provinces – Limpopo. Dr Phophi Ramathuba was head-hunted and put on the shortlist of candidates by Limpopo Premier Stanley Mathabatha, her appointment this June prompting national Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to quip to her: 'You're going from throwing stones to catching them. ' She follows in the footsteps of another SAMA leader, Dr Norman Mabasa (variously former SAMA chair, general manager and president between 2009 and 2012, and Limpopo MEC from 2012 to 2014). Without intending one-upmanship, she genuinely believes she's uniquely better qualified for the job than Mabasa was. Mabasa, now back in private practice in Krugersdorp, chairing the National Convention on Dispensing and a panellist on one of the Medical and Dental Professions Board disciplinary committees, actually agrees. 'Unlike me, she's a political animal, served for a long time as treasurer to the SA Communist Party's Limpopo branch, represented SAMA in COSATU and worked for over a decade in that province's public sector hospitals – she knows the political players, ' says Mabasa, whose soft-spoken style of leadership has won him wide respect. However, he does have a few words of advice and caution about running a provincial health department that immediately prior to his appointment saw more than ZAR25 million in health contracts awarded to state officials and the entire province virtually bankrupt (under central government administration). 'Your former allies will become your potential adversaries because they now expect you to deliver what you represented them about. You'll have to deliver on what you expected others to do. The other problem is that there are camps based on political differences and you receive different levels of loyalty. This is why in the main, new incumbents bring in their own people. People can cause you embarrassment. You're also going into a province hungry for service, destitute both financially and by its rural nature. There are clinics you can't reach by phone, that have no roofs, that you cannot reach comfortably by car, that have no water. Don't own what was not your creation, but do try to …