Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba's recent rant about foreign nationals burdening the province’s health system has sparked a campaign by “Operation Dudula” targeting public hospitals, and causing outrage from both the authorities and those needing healthcare.
From initially harassing and vetting the nationalities of patients at only the Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, the group has now rolled out its campaign on a national basis, attempting to force foreigners to pay for treatment received at state hospitals and clinics while blocking undocumented ones from entering.
Yesterday, the EFF in Gauteng said it was mobilising its members to “defend” Kalafong Hospital, where Operation Dudula has been checking patients arriving at the hospital and blocking entrance to those who are dark-skinned. They have also used a loudhailer shouting, “foreigners are not allowed”, and telling them to “go back home”.
According to The Sowetan, the group has been mainly stopping women, based on their “appearance and skin tone”, and demanding proof of identification – this despite a court order preventing them from doing so.
Dudula deputy chair Dan Radebe said the interdict “…says nothing about picketing, so we will carry on picketing to send the message across that the hospital is failing to enforce its own policy”.
White people and light-skinned black people are being permitted to freely enter the hospital, while dark-skinned people face a barrage of questions to prove they are South African.
EFF’s acting Gauteng provincial chairperson Itani Mukwevho questioned why police have not arrested or dispersed Dudula members, despite an interdict from the health authorities against the people blocking the hospital entrance, and vetting patients.
Hospital spokesperson Hlengani Makhuvhela said the defiance was a clear contempt of the court order, which the Department of Health obtained last Friday, as they continued to threaten and intimidate foreigners making their way to the facility. The hospital has now written to the Tshwane district police commissioner’s office, pleading for action, reports SowetanLIVE.
“We have written to the district police commissioner’s office through our risk assessment office and hope that this will help us return the situation to normal. We feel as if we are sitting on a ticking time bomb.”
Makhuvhela said the presence of the Operation Dudula members was deterring patients from getting into the hospital and tantamount to intimidation. “If this continues we might face adverse consequences, like losing lives, because some patients will be too scared to come for treatment.”
He added that the hospital has limited resources to challenge the group and was relying on police to enforce the court order. “We contacted law enforcement on the first day the problem arose. After that we were asked to get a court interdict, which we now have, and yet the situation remains unchanged.”
A radiology staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said while he did not agree with the movement’s approach, the hospital was over-burdened. “Most of my patients are undocumented foreign nationals. We get to a point where it’s a whole ward full of them.
“We sometimes run out of wheelchairs and drips, and are overcrowded. This means we have to discharge some people before their time so we can make space for others, and it is very risky. But the most burdened department is maternity. We really have to stretch our resources beyond the imaginable. If government can fix our borders and have proper laws, we would see a lot of difference.”
He said while the number of undocumented foreign patients had decreased since the protest, there were many others still finding their way into the hospital.
On Tuesday, Dudula took to the Hillbrow Clinic in Johannesburg demanding foreigners pay for services, but dispersed after an engagement with the police, who said no incidents of violence were reported.
Buhlewenkosi Dube (34), a Zimbabwean national, said she disapproved of the targeting of foreigners. “What they are doing is totally wrong. Foreigners are not only here in South Africa. Foreigners are everywhere. We have South Africans in our country and we do not treat them badly.”
Dudula national co-ordinator Thabo Ngayo said they would continue their nationwide picket outside clinics and hospitals for management to bill foreign nationals using medical services. He added they wanted records of how many foreign nationals have been serviced this year alone.
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said the group’s behaviour was “highly regrettable” as it “undermines everything South Africa stands for”, reports IOL.
“This country is a member of the progressive global nations and an affiliate to the progressive principles of the human tribe. Everything that has occurred there is against the constitutional imperatives of this country,” Gungubele said.
Deputy State Security Minister Zizi Kodwa labelled the actions of Dudula in Tshwane as “pure criminality”, adding it was unlawful for any citizen to stop another person from entering a healthcare facility or to demand to see their IDs.
“Government, particularly the Home Affairs Minister, has called for an overhaul in the immigration process which is currently under way but we can’t allow the actions of (Operation Dudula) to undermine the laws of the country because this will escalate to move to ethnic groups.”
Operation Dudula Johannesburg regional chairperson Siphiwe Shabangu said their pickets would continue this week outside the Hillbrow Health Centre, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, among others.
SowetanLive article – Kalafong worried about patients defaulting on treatment (Restricted access)
SowetanLive article – Dudula vows to extend its anti-foreigners siege (Restricted access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Limpopo MEC under fire over migrants comments
NGO takes Health MEC to court for immigrants to access healthcare
The rights of foreign nationals in accessing SA healthcare
Johannesburg struggles under burden of undocumented patients — Mashaba