Police have made several arrests of militant anti-migrant group members recently, but seemingly with little effect as the organisations continue to terrorise foreigners seeking care at government clinics and hospitals in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Operation Dudula president Zandile Dabula previously said that the organisation’s members have not been preventing access to all foreign nationals, just those without documentation, and that no critical care has been interrupted. The aim was to ensure documented foreign nationals pay for their treatment, she added.
After the organisation shut down Lilian Ngoyi Community Health Care Centre in Diekloof, Soweto, last week and insisted that immigration officers be posted to prevent foreign nationals from accessing free care, three women were arrested and charged with public violence and contravening the National Health Act.
They have since been released on bail.
In a separate incident in Booysens, Johannesburg, another two people were arrested on the same charges after irate nurses and patients locked them into a ward and called the police.
The Star reports that in the first case, the trio had stormed into the Lilian Ngoyi Centre demanding identity documents from patients to verify their nationality.
Gauteng police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo said the women, aged between 49 and 60, were arrested after police were called to the facility by nursing staff and patients who had locked the three into a labour ward, saying their rights had been violated by the anti-migrant group.
In the second incident, two people were arrested in Booysens for allegedly assaulting a man at a medical care centre. The victim, who had been queuing for treatment, was approached by a woman who demanded to see his ID or passport.
When he failed to produce documentation, the woman called two accomplices, who began assaulting the man and forced him to leave the clinic.
The victim later opened a case at Booysens Police Station, and two people were traced and arrested: they were charged with contravention of the National Health Act and common assault.
Last week, Gauteng police had to intervene at Crown Gardens Clinic in Johannesburg to remove protesters demanding ID documents from patients.
Masondo told IOL it was “the duty of the police to maintain public order”, and that police may go to other health institutions where similar issues were taking place if the facilities reported it.
Condemnation
On Tuesday, the chairperson of Parliament’s Select Committee on Education, Sciences & the Creative Industries, Makhi Feni, “condemned with the utmost contempt the actions of Operation Dudula”.
He said that Operation Dudula “had been on a crusade over the past couple of months to disrupt services” at healthcare centres by refusing entry to foreign nationals.
The organisation announced last week that similar disruptions will target schools when they open in 2026.
“The actions of Operation Dudula are objectionable and an unnecessary distraction to the work government is doing around immigration challenges. People do not just come to South Africa out of free will but for refuge and (to get away) from hunger,” said Feni.
This week Operation Dudula said it was preparing to meet Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to discuss the issue and “demand fair access to healthcare for South African citizens”.
“Our goal is clear: to protect our people’s rights and ensure public services prioritise South Africans first,” it told TimesLIVE.
In Durban, activists from the equally xenophobic group March and March have been carrying out a similar campaign.
A Tembisa woman – who endured the trauma of giving birth alone with no assistance from nurses – is just one of the hundreds of foreign nationals who have faced hostility at dozens of facilities amid the ongoing campaign by the groups, reports News24.
The 38-year-old woman reported to Esangweni Community Healthcare Centre in Tembisa while in labour last week. But instead of receiving the care she needed, she was met with hostility from nursing staff and ignored during her delivery.
“I just prayed. I had to push my baby out alone and put it on a chair afterwards. No one was monitoring me. Thank God I didn’t have any complications,” she said.
“There was no midwife to tell me when to push or to breathe. The nurses just came to clean afterwards and take care of the umbilical cord.”
The nightmare delivery followed the mother being turned away from the clinic during her check-up at 38 weeks.
“People were chasing foreigners away at the gate, and I couldn’t go to the clinic. They want a South African ID before you can go in, and they won’t accept passports or permits. I don’t have money for private healthcare, so I had to go without my check-up.”
She was not the only one.
Despite having a high-risk pregnancy, a Yeoville woman said she was turned away from South Rand Hospital recently because she did not have a South African ID.
The woman is expecting her fourth child and was transferred to South Rand Hospital when she developed high blood pressure. She had been booked for a sonar scan and check-up to make sure her baby was healthy.
She said she waited in the queue with around 10 other people, after having arrived at the hospital at around 5am. She had been waiting for two hours when a group of people approached them.
“They were carrying their IDs and said: ‘If you don’t have this, you must go out.’ We remained seated. Then they started shouting. A woman who was sitting next to me stood up and moved. I followed her, and the other ladies followed. A lot of people were removed from the hospital, even the sick ones.”
She said she overheard staff talking about the situation and agreeing with the removal of patients from the hospital.
“They said that the foreigners wanted to be treated free and that they had to go.” She said she had been too scared to return to the clinic.
“I haven’t been back. I have constant pain in my stomach, but I don’t have the money for a private clinic.”
A 44-year-old woman living in Tembisa told News24 she has only two days’ worth of her ART left and no way to access more at her local clinic.
When she tried to go to Itireleng Community Healthcare Centre, she was told to visit a private healthcare facility instead.
“I was supposed to go yesterday, but when they heard I have a passport, they told me to go to a private clinic. I don’t have money for that; I’m only working two days a week,” she said.
“I only have medicine for today and tomorrow. I don’t know what I’m going to do. God will have to work a miracle.”
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) spokesperson Jane Rabothata said hundreds of people had been affected by the anti-foreigner sentiment.
The organisation has slammed the “distressing and unacceptable” crisis, and the fact that in some cases, security staff and healthcare workers were apparently working in collusion with the anti-migrant groups.
Rabothata said revelations from an assessment by MSF that many healthcare staff supported the Operation Dudula members chasing foreign nationals away and, in some cases, even assisted, was concerning.
“Because people are being turned away, the workload has reduced, so they get to knock off early. They don’t have to deal with an overflow of patients.”
Rabothata said the MSF assessment had found “anti-migrant groups blocking healthcare at dozens of clinics and hospitals”.
Although the assessment primarily focused on 15 facilities in and around Johannesburg, the MSF team found that people had been turned away from at least 24 facilities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
This list has been handed over to the health authorities, with the request that a probe be immediately launched, said Rabothata, adding that knock-on effects of denying health services could be devastating.
Departmental spokesperson Foster Mohale said he was not aware of the list handed over by the MSF.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the department has no idea how many documented or undocumented foreigners use government hospitals and clinics, adding that they do not track these numbers, and that thousands of South African seeking healthcare also lack official identity documentation, reports TimesLIVE.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question by ActionSA MP Kgosi Letlape about the number of foreigners attending public health facilities, Motsoaledi said this was “in accordance with section 27 of the Constitution which states everyone has the right to healthcare services …regardless of documentation status”.
“Healthcare is provided based on clinical need, not on nationality or documentation status,” he added.
While patients are required to provide proof of identity at facilities, “services are not withheld from those unable to do so”, and their nationalities are not recorded in the system.
“The patient administration and records systems do not classify or record individuals as South African or foreign … so are unable to provide the number of undocumented people who have accessed services over the past five years.”
He added that numerous South African citizens also sought health services but without presenting identification, many of whom have no identity documents issued by Home Affairs, or any other official form of identity.
“This makes it impossible to determine whether such undocumented patients are foreigners,” he said.
ActionSA wants only South Africans and permanent residents to be able to use public health facilities.
TimesLIVE –Government doesn't track foreign patients in public health care: Motsoaledi
The Star PressReader article – Three held after demanding IDS from patients (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Anti-foreigner group ups ante at healthcare facilities
Health MEC denies role in sacking radio DJ over migrant protests
Operation Dudula protesters force migrants to pay for healthcare