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Nelson Mandela University Alumni x2👨🏾‍🎓|| Football & Music⚽ 🎶|| Barca ♥️💙💛& Mamelodi Sundowns 💙💛|| Kelvin Momo 🎶

[Hopewell Chin’ono @daddyhope]

It is that time again when President Arthur Peter Mutharika of Malawi heads to South Africa for a medical check-up.

The 87-year-old President was elected by Malawians last year to serve another five-year term. He has already travelled to South Africa several times, and if I am not mistaken, this must be his third visit for medical treatment.

Meanwhile, many Malawian public hospitals struggle with severe shortages. Some lack basic necessities, including reliable access to clean drinking water, let alone adequate medication and medical equipment.
Yet the President is able to fly to South Africa on a private jet to receive treatment while ordinary Malawians are left to rely on an under-resourced healthcare system.

This raises a broader question that applies not only to Malawi but to much of Africa, why can’t African leaders fix their healthcare delivery systems so that they can receive treatment in their own countries instead of travelling abroad?

President Arthur Peter Mutharika is not unique. Across Africa, presidents, vice-presidents and senior government officials routinely travel to South Africa, India, China, Dubai and other destinations for medical care.
Yet if one considers the amount of money spent on private jets, accommodation, security, allowances and medical bills abroad, that expenditure could go a long way towards improving healthcare systems at home.

The greatest tragedy is that a Malawian president can fly all the way to South Africa for medical treatment, only to discover that the doctor treating him is Malawian. That is the real tragedy of Africa. We spend millions sending our leaders abroad for treatment while failing to build healthcare systems that can retain our own doctors and serve our own people at home.

No nation can claim to be developing while its leaders have confidence in foreign hospitals but expect ordinary citizens to rely on failing public healthcare systems. The true test of leadership is building institutions that are good enough for everyone, including those in power.

If I were the president of an African country, I would make it an unchangeable law that every public official elected to public office must use public hospitals. Not private hospitals in our own country, and certainly not hospitals abroad, but public hospitals.

If you believe that a public hospital is beneath you, then you should not be in a public office in the first place. If you are unwilling to use the same healthcare system as the people who elected you, then you clearly lack the commitment, confidence or capacity to fix the problems facing that healthcare system.

The moment a minister, member of parliament, vice-president or president knows that their own life and the lives of their families depend on the quality of public healthcare, things will change very quickly. Equipment will be purchased, medicines will be stocked, doctors will be retained, and hospitals will be maintained.

The tragedy in many African countries is that those responsible for fixing public services are often insulated from the consequences of their failure. They send their children to private schools, use private security, live in exclusive suburbs and seek medical treatment abroad, while ordinary citizens are left to endure collapsing public services.

A leader should never ask citizens to rely on services that they themselves are unwilling to use. True leadership means sharing the same realities as the people you serve and having enough faith in your own policies to live by them.

It is also important to acknowledge things where they actually work, things that reflect the Africa that we want. Nelson Mandela did not die in a hospital abroad. He died in South Africa, being treated by South African doctors. The former Vice President of South Africa, David Mabuza, did not die in a foreign hospital. He died while being treated in a hospital in South Africa. Presidents Hage Geingob and Sam Nujoma of Namibia did not die in foreign hospitals. They died in Namibian hospitals, being treated by Namibian doctors.

That is the kind of Africa that we want, not what we see in countries such as Zimbabwe, Malawi and Nigeria, where presidents do not even have faith in the public systems that they are running. That is a tragedy.

As for Malawi, it is a tragedy because it is one of the poorest countries in the world, if not the poorest, and yet it is being saddled with these huge bills by its ailing and very elderly president. Yet his own country, as I have said many times, does not even have water in some of its major public hospitals. Just drinking water, forget about the medicine.

Former Malawian President Hastings Kamuzu Banda died on 25 November 1997 in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a South African hospital. President Peter Mutharika’s brother, former Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, suffered a cardiac arrest in 2012 and was flown to South Africa on a private jet.

So, almost 30 years after Malawi’s founding president died in South Africa, Malawian leaders are still travelling to South Africa for medical treatment. Three decades later, they are still unable to fix their own healthcare system.

It is sad. A country cannot continue spending millions flying its leaders abroad for treatment while its public hospitals struggle to provide basic services. The real measure of development is whether a country’s leaders have enough confidence in their own healthcare system to use it themselves.

Thirty years later, the destination remains the same, South Africa. That should concern every Malawian. It is a painful tragedy.

[Africa Facts Zone @AfricaFactsZone]

South Africa's Department of Home Affairs says it has processed 586 Nigerian citizens living in the country for repatriation, after they were found to be in the country illegally.

[Fabrizio Romano @FabrizioRomano]

🚨✈️ Robert Lewandowski, on his way to the US with his agent Pini Zahavi to decide on move to Chicago Fire. 🇺🇸

MLS side pushing to get it done, Lewandowski to consider this option as @wlodar85 reported.

Understand contract offered valid for two or three years, up to Robert.

[Megatron @Megatron_ron]

BREAKING: 🇫🇷🇮🇱 Following an investigation, French officials have revealed that Blackcore, an Israel-based organization, has been meddling in numerous elections across the world.

[Peché Africa 🇿🇦 @pmcafrica]

South Africans

[Lerato Ngobeni MP @MikaNgobeni]

🚨Government must explain how thousands of foreign-owned businesses are operating across South Africa when only 33 business visas have been approved during the most recent financial year and just 204 over the past five years. https://t.co/IwEjciaWbL

[Sihle Mavuso @ZANewsFlash]

NEWS: A third Mozambican national has been arrested for the brutal murder of a couple inside Kruger National Park.
The suspect was nabbed in Zimbabwe, where he was hiding, and he would be deported to Mozambique to join his accomplices in the dock - KZN Tonight Podcast

[𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚗 @fcbharrison]

An innocent Somali referee gets denied a visa, but Ronaldo can stroll into the US like Las Vegas ’09 never happened.

[Africa Facts Zone @AfricaFactsZone]

South Africa will charge foreign governments for the costs of repatriating their citizens back to their home country.

[Jacinta Ngobese🇿🇦 @JacintaNgobese]

Why would we blame people who don’t even have a proper stadium let alone a football league??

[Tottenham Hotspur @Spurs_ES]

🐐

[- @AnfieldRd96]

Not having World Cup football during the day is an absolute joke. Having to wait until the evening is painful.

[Sihle 🇵🇹🇨🇵 @Mxbeez]

Beefing with south africa will always end in tears . Look now , visa denied.

[BarçaTimes @BarcaTimes]

🚨 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐁 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓: “Should Florentino Pérez fail to respond appropriately to the club's request and retract his statements made against the club, Barcelona will proceed with legal action through the criminal courts.” 🔥

[Former Kleva Black🇿🇦 🇿🇦#FreeCongo#FreeSudan @SneKhumaloSA]

Why do rich Black SAns hate poor Black SAns so much???

[Amukelani Moyani @AmukelaniMoyani]

Dear South Africans: I insist that @Julius_S_Malema is the biggest fraud in South African politics!!

[Jacinta Ngobese🇿🇦 @JacintaNgobese]

If we were petty like them we would be supporting Canada and celebrating this nonsense of a treatment but we are not like them

[FC Barcelona @FCBarcelona]

FC Barcelona official statement
https://t.co/3Xo7X5LE4L

[Noorie @Nurapost]

This is exactly what everyone wants to see.