The EFF in Gauteng has opened a criminal case against the Operation Dudula movement, accusing it of inciting violence and unlawfully targeting foreign nationals in South Africa following the death of a Malawian toddler who, together with his mother, was apparently denied entry to a clinic.
On Sunday, Gauteng police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo confirmed to IOL that investigations are under way.
“Police have opened an inquiry docket for investigation. Once it is complete, the docket will be taken to the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) for a decision,” he said.
The one-year child’s mother, Malawian national Grace Banda, had said she and her baby were turned away from the Alexandra Community Health Centre in July by Operation Dudula members who told her she could only enter if she had a South African identity document. Her sick child later died.
Dunga said the little boy’s death amounted to murder. “If someone gets sick, and someone dies, and if they could be assisted there and there, it is not only negligence, they knew exactly what they were doing… they eliminated the life of a one-year-old.
“So, we have opened a case of murder. It is up to the state to pick up and do the necessary investigations.”
The EFF further claims that several South Africans have also been denied access to healthcare facilities in Gauteng after being presumed to be foreign nationals.
Denied
However, Operation Dudula has denied responsibility for the death, claiming its members were not at the clinic on the day in question, reports News24.
Banda (21) had said that when she told the people who denied her access that she was from Malawi and had only a passport, they said she should consult a private doctor or hospital.
“I pleaded with them to help my son, but they refused,” she said.
Banda had then returned home and the next day, consulted a private doctor, who prescribed treatment.
But later that day, she awoke to find her son unresponsive and he was declared dead at Edenvale Hospital.
She said she believed her son would still be alive if he had been treated at the clinic on the day she took him there.
Not there
Operation Dudula denied the allegations after the story was first broadcast by Newzroom Afrika. It called them “reckless and misleading” and insisted no members were at the clinic on the day in question.
Dudula president Zandile Dabula said: “If it’s an emergency, we allow people to go into hospitals. However, our investigations have revealed that our members were not at the facility on that day.”
Earlier this month, IOL reported that Operation Dudula and Zimbabwe’s ruling party Zanu-PF clashed in a war of words after the latter condemned Dudula’s stance on foreign nationals accessing healthcare in South Africa.
Dabula told IOL that South Africa would not be dictated to by outsiders, and dismissed Zanu-PF’s criticism. “We will not be told by foreigners how to run our country. We have the Constitution that is supposed to be guiding us, we have immigration laws we use as guiding documents,” she said.
Her comments were in response to Zanu-PF’s director of information, Farai Marapira, who said Operation Dudula’s campaign against undocumented migrants was “a betrayal of ubuntu” and a continuation of colonial-era tactics of dividing Africans.
But Dabula called his remarks baseless. “For him to talk about these unfounded allegations, that we are funded by former colonisers, that is definitely not true. How are we going to be funded by the very same people who we are working against?” she said.
Operation Dudula, she stressed, was committed to prioritising South Africans, “ensuring that foreigners comply with immigration laws and contribute to the services they use”.
No right
The Gauteng Department of Health has slammed the obstruction of patients at healthcare centres, with spokesperson Motalatale Modiba saying “no community member or structure” has the right to prevent others from accessing healthcare.
When News24 visited the clinic last week, two staff claimed that people were stationed there daily, turning away non-South Africans without IDs.
Last month Makhi Feni, chairperson of Parliament’s Select Committee on Education, Sciences and the Creative Industries, condemned Operation Dudula’s actions, accusing its members of being on a “crusade” to disrupt services, and even threatening to target schools next year.
“These actions are objectionable and are an unnecessary distraction to the work the government is doing around immigration challenges. People do not just come to South Africa out of free will but for refuge and from hunger.”
Virtual clinic helps Zimbabweans
Meanwhile, a group of 45 Zimbabwean clinicians in South Africa have extended a helping hand to 600 immigrants facing healthcare exclusion, offering virtual consultations amid fears of victimisation in public hospitals.
The systematic blocking of Zimbabweans and other non-South African nationals from public hospitals inspired the group to collaborate on the idea, and in less than a year, the telehealth programme, which includes 42 nurses and three doctors living and working in South Africa, has assisted at least 600 Zimbabweans in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
Its co-ordinator, Butholezwe Nyathi, told News24 that the challenge of accessing healthcare was affecting all foreign nationals, whether documented or undocumented.
“We assist people virtually for safety reasons; we only make physical contact with a person in cases of emergency. People send us WhatsApp messages, and we guide them based on their needs, including instituting a referral to our partners who have availed their services or house calls.”
Nyathi said what they were doing was not illegal.
“As technology advances, this new strategy is used in private practices to deliver healthcare. This ensures efficiency, effectiveness of service and convenience for the clients. The Health Professions Council of South Africa and the South African Nursing Council permit this modality of healthcare delivery,” he said.
Another partner, Jabulani Magambuza, said sidelining Zimbabweans from basic healthcare was a silent crisis, but they were working on plugging the gap.
“Many have run out of chronic medication, and there’s a campaign for measles immunisation, but their children are being left out. They reach out to us – desperate and in panic mode – and we must devise a plan, linking them to clinics and surgeries that work with us,” he said.
One of the programme’s outstanding partners is Unjani Clinic, which caters to underserved communities. However, medical fees often prevent many from seeking assistance.
Nyathi said there was an urgent need for assistance and donations to help people with diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, and cardiac conditions.
“We also get calls from people who are bleeding or have been burnt… that calls for a referral for a consultation that will be paid for by private doctors. Facilities like Unjani Clinic are willing to help but need payment for services; failure to meet that need is making people lose hope.”
Most people who contact the clinicians survive on menial jobs, but some foreigners are well off, and Magambuza urged them to donate whatever they could to help the next person.
He said the aim was to eventually “introduce a model similar to that of a burial society”.
News24 article – Virtual clinic aids 600 Zimbabweans denied public healthcare in SA (Open access)
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