South Africa’s Public Protector Accuses Zim Rights Boss Jessie Majome of Lying on Live TV
South Africa’s Public Protector has publicly called out Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) chairperson Jessie Majome, accusing her of making false claims about the two institutions working together to address the denial of healthcare to Zimbabwean nationals in South Africa.
Majome claimed during an interview with Newzroom Afrika, saying that the ZHRC had formally engaged South Africa’s Public Protector’s office over reports that Zimbabweans were being turned away from hospitals across the border.
But on Monday, 4 August 2025, the Office of the Public Protector South Africa (PPSA) released a statement flatly denying Majome’s version of events. They made it clear, no such complaint was ever lodged.
“Following numerous media inquiries, the Public Protector South Africa (PPSA) wishes to clarify that it has no record of a complaint lodged by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC), in relation to the denial of Zimbabwean nationals access to healthcare services in South Africa,” part of the statement reads.
The PPSA went further to explain that yes, they had met with a ZHRC delegation — but it was almost a year ago, in September 2024, and the visit had nothing to do with Zimbabweans being barred from healthcare.
The South African office described the visit as a standard benchmarking exercise, essentially a learning trip, which also involved other ombudsman institutions. They shared documents with ZHRC afterwards to help strengthen its internal capacity, but insisted the discussions had no focus on alleged discrimination against Zimbabweans.
“On 10 and 11 September 2024, the PPSA hosted a ZHRC delegation, as part of a benchmarking visit initiated by the ZHRC, as we have done with other institutions with a similar mandate from other parts of the world. At the same time, the PPSA hosted an ombudsman delegation from another African country. The visit covered several issues commonly shared between institutions with a similar mandate, including but not limited to best practices within the environment, corruption, as well as challenges relating to service delivery in both countries, among those being health care systems. Consequently, and upon the request of the ZHRC, on 14 October 2024, the PPSA shared documents with the ZHRC that would assist to strengthen the ZHRC’s institutional capacity to investigate malfeasance in its own country. At no point did the discussions then, nor recently, focus on the denial of Zimbabwean nationals’ access to health care services in South Africa,” the statement further reads.
They added that the only mention of healthcare during that visit was in the context of comparing public health challenges in both countries, and that PPSA simply shared findings from its own investigations into South Africa’s health system, as a guide for Zimbabwe to carry out similar work at home.
“Rather, the discussions were about, among other things, the state of the health care systems in both countries. Accordingly, the PPSA also referred to its own investigation into the state of the healthcare system in South Africa as a guide for the ZHRC to investigate the same in its own country,” the Public Protector added.
The Public Protector’s office said they were surprised by Majome’s recent remarks in the media and warned that misrepresenting such engagements undermines trust between institutions. They also seemed to take a subtle jab at Majome’s credibility by stressing that PPSA, unlike what she suggested, always acts in line with its mandate, upholding the rule of law and protecting human rights based on proper procedure.
“We are therefore surprised by reports in the media about discussions, which purportedly occurred recently, and were centred around matters relating to Zimbabwean nationals being denied access to healthcare services in South Africa; neither do we have record of a complaint of that kind. As one of leading institutions of its kind both continentally and globally, the PPSA has committed to assisting the ZHRC to strengthen its impact to better serve the people of Zimbabwe, in line with international standards followed by institutions of this kind, which are to uphold the rule of law, protect human rights and enforce good governance in its own country.”
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