Three organisations have taken the Gauteng Department of Health back to court to enforce a court order, saying Operation Dudula thugs are still barring foreign nationals from two Johannesburg clinics, reports News24.
The Treatment Action Campaign, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia said the xenophobic group was still barring migrants, pregnant women, and children from obtaining healthcare at the Yeoville and Rosettenville clinics, despite Judge Stuart Wilson ordering authorities to stop the harassment months ago.
Wilson had ordered the Health Department and the City of Johannesburg to restore safe, unhindered access to the clinics immediately, to remove any unauthorised people blocking patients; to station trained security at clinic entrances, and place notices warning that anyone obstructing access would be removed and reported to police.
The initial order was awarded after the activists said the two clinics had become the focus of anti-migrant vigilante activity last year, when groups outside the facilities were demanding that patients produce South African identity documents before being allowed in.
The activists claimed that vigilantes were sometimes even inside clinic premises, controlling access while security guards and staff failed to intervene.
The Health Department and municipality had not commented at the time of publication.
One mother told News24 she had been left unattended by clinic staff while giving birth to her child, just because she was a foreign national.
At that time, MSF had identified, during an assessment, “disturbing reports of anti-migrant groups blocking healthcare at dozens of clinics and hospitals for several weeks”.
Although the assessment primarily focused on 15 facilities in and around Johannesburg, the MSF team found that people were being turned away from at least 24 facilities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, and in November, the Gauteng High Court ruled that Operation Dudula’s actions were unlawful and xenophobic.
The case was brought by the Socioeconomic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) on behalf of several organisations.
Judge Leicester Adams found that private individuals have no legal authority to demand identity documents from others, and ordered that Operation Dudula members stop demanding passports or IDs, and to cease intimidating harassing, or assaulting people they believe to be foreign nationals.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Second legal bid to get authorities to act against Dudula vigilantism
Defiant Operation Dudula to appeal ruling
Interdict bid against Operation Dudula dismissed over lack of urgency