Sister Ethel Normoyle, from Co Clare, appears to have emerged as the victor in two unsought skirmishes with the provincial premier of Eastern Cape.
Mr Makhenkesi Stofile, a high-ranking member of the ruling African National Congress, claimed Sister Ethel's Mission vale Care Centre restricts its provision of food for the hungry and care of the sick and dying to Catholics.
Mr Stofile, having reportedly promised to reinstate a provincial government grant after visiting the centre last year, cites the alleged discriminatory policy as the reason for his decision not to reinstate the grant.
But an investigation by the local newspaper, the Eastern Province Herald, has proved the contrary: most of those who sought and received care at the centre were not Catholics. "There was hardly a Catholic among them," the newspaper reports.
Sister Ethel, who is from Lissycasey, Co Clare, is incredulous that Mr Stofile should even think, let alone publicly proclaim, his belief that she discriminates on religious grounds against the poor and hungry, the sick and the dying.
She told The Irish Times: "Looking out of the window I see poor people queuing for bread and a bowl of soup." The phrase is simple but its message is clear. She sees poor people, not members of one religious denomination or another.
Sister Ethel, a member of the Little Company of Mary, remarks: "I have lived half my life in Africa. I have been blessed. I have worked with black people, the poor and the suffering. They are like my family here, my home from home."
Mr Stofile then insisted the Missionvale centre falls under the aegis of the "government funded" St Vincent de Paul and that it is thus an indirect recipient of provincial government funds.
He goes on to accuse the centre of not conforming to government policy that priority should be given to children under the age of six, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
He tones down but nevertheless repeats his original allegation. The beneficiaries of the centre's charitable services are "mostly Catholics," he asserts.
Mr Terry Herbst, an elected member of the metropolitan council and a man who has won a reputation as a corruption fighter, accused Mr Stofile of resorting to sophistry.
St Vincent de Paul is an umbrella society under which several charitable organisations fall, he says, and it is not government-funded.
While an official pamphlet defines children under six, pregnant and lactating women as prime targets for assistance, it goes on to sanction the granting of aid to people from poor households and those who are chronically ill.
Mr Herbst describes Mission vale as an area where "the poorest of poor" are being decimated by HIV-AIDS.
Sister Ethel, aged 56, asks simply how she can give bread to a hungry five-year-old boy and refuse it to his equally hungry seven-year-old brother.