Yes, Dr Manamela has a real PhD...
Parts of her thesis don’t make sense
Many Twitter users have questioned if suspended Gauteng director of mental health Makgabo Manamela’s qualifications are legitimate. They are. However, if there is one thing her PhD thesis in psychiatric nursing‚ awarded in 2005‚ makes clear is that she knows nurses need to be “caring”‚ attentive to patients’ mental health needs and respectful of their “dignity”.
Manamela‚ one of the three leaders in the Life Esidimeni tragedy in which 143 mentally ill patients died‚ was told during her testimony that perhaps she didn’t care about patient rights.
Her PhD thesis in psychiatric nursing was awarded by the University of Johannesburg in 2005. Her thesis examined nurses’ attitudes to Aids patients before antiretroviral treatment was widely available in government hospitals.
In her thesis‚ Manamela acknowledged the importance of nurses being caring. For example‚ she notes: “Leininger in (Green-Edelstein‚ 1986: 9) states that caring is the most unifying‚ dominant and central intellectual and practical focus of nursing”.
On day two of her testimony‚ hearing judge Dikgang Moseneke suggested Manamela didn’t care about people when she signed licences for illequipped‚ unskilled NGOs to look after profoundly mentally ill patients.
Here are some areas in her thesis where Manamela speaks of nurses’ duties. The following quotes are literal – mistakes and all.
“Patient participants felt that ● they were left alone to die. Nurses failed to realise the need for the patients’ mental well-being. They saw themselves as the bearers of the nursing procedures and nothing more.” “Psychiatric nursing considers
● the mental health as the cornerstone of its practice. The practice requires that in every encounter with the patient, the aim should be to promote mental health.”
Her doctoral thesis is filled with poor grammar and some sentences do not make sense. In one instance‚ Manamela speaks of nurses scolding patients: “This is humiliation of the human dignity”.
Another sentence suggests nurses she interviewed were given counselling: “Nurses often needed emotional support immediately and that was only offered later and telephonically which cannot be guaranteed.” [sic]