Tag: xenophobia

Categories : VaccinesTags :

Operation Dudula Blocks Babies from Getting Vaccines

On By ModernMedia

Vigilante group is controlling clinic queues in Johannesburg

Photo by William Fortunato on Pexels

By Kimberly Mutandiro

Mothers of newborn babies, turned away at public clinics in Johannesburg because they are not South African, say their children are missing out on lifesaving vaccines.

In recent months, vigilante group Operation Dudula has been taking control of clinic queues across Johannesburg, chasing away immigrants or telling them to stand separately from South Africans. It is alleged that some healthcare staff have been participating.

This is despite a 2023 ruling in the Gauteng High Court that pregnant and lactating women and young children should be granted free health care services regardless of their nationality. 

The court ordered the Gauteng Department of Health to change its policy denying immigrants healthcare, and to place notices on the walls at all healthcare facilities stating lactating women and children may not be denied access. This order is not being consistently complied with.

GroundUp visited the Jeppe Clinic last week and saw no such notice. There was a small group of Operation Dudula members pulling immigrants out of the queue and telling them to stand to one side.

Jane Banda, a Malawian national, was at the clinic. She has been struggling to get her seven-week-old baby vaccinated, but has been blocked every time by Operation Dudula. She fears her baby’s health may be at risk if she continues to miss essential vaccinations.

Aisha Amadu, an asylum seeker from Malawi, who has a two-year-old baby, had an appointment at Jeppe Clinic last week but was chased away by Operation Dudula.

Grace Issah, also from Malawi, has a 14-week-old baby who was due for a vaccine two weeks ago. But she has been chased away from clinics in Jeppe, Bez Valley and Hillbrow.

“I feel like giving up because it seems there is nothing that I can do. My husband has no money for private doctors,” she said.

Several other women said they have also been denied access to clinics in Malvern, Kensington, Rosettenville and Soweto.

The Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) launched a case in the Gauteng High Court in 2024, on behalf of Kopanang Afrika Against Xenophobia (KAAX), the Inner City Federation, Abahlali BaseMjondolo, and the South African Informal Traders Forum.

The group is seeking an interdict to declare the actions of the vigilante group, which include denying healthcare to immigrants, unlawful. The matter was heard in June, and judgment was reserved.

Mike Ndlovu from KAAX says it is a constitutional right for everyone in South Africa to be able to access healthcare.

“What Operation Dudula and a few complicit nurses are doing is unconstitutional, a criminal act, and a betrayal of our democracy. Denying healthcare is a violation of basic human rights,” said Ndlovu.

Ndlovu called on healthcare workers to remember their professional duty: to care without discrimination.

Operation Dudula’s actions have been condemned by the South African Human Rights Commission.

Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale said the department is aware of the action by Operation Dudula, but denied that department staff members are involved.

“The health facility managers have been advised to alert the law enforcement agencies whenever they experience these protests because that is a security issue to enforce the law,” Mohale said.

Mohale did not respond to questions about whether the department has complied with the 2023 court order to put up the notices.

Zandile Dabula, spokesperson for Operation Dudula, did not respond to a request for comment. But Veli Ngobese, a member of the movement who was at Jeppe clinic on the day GroundUp visited, said: “We are targeting all people from outside the country. We want Home Affairs to start afresh. Foreign nationals who come into the country should come and invest because the ones we see are selling amagwinya [vetkoek], pushing trolleys, and selling peanuts, and we are the ones paying taxes.”

He said the group will be conducting daily protests until immigrants stop going to clinics.

Republished from GroundUp under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Categories : HospitalsTags :

Operation Dudula Harasses Immigrants outside Kalafong Hospital

On By ModernMedia
Police were present at Kalafong Hospital in Tshwane on Wednesday after the Gauteng Health Department obtained an interdict to prevent members of Operation Dudula from threatening immigrants. Photo: Mosima Rafapa

Members of Operation Dudula were outside Kalafong provincial hospital in Tshwane on Wednesday, shouting at immigrant patients and employees. Police were present, enforcing the court interdict obtained last week by the Gauteng Health Department against the threats.

A security guard who did not want to give his name said for most of August Operation Dudula members had been operating outside the hospital, until the Gauteng Department of Health obtained a court interdict last Friday.

“They greeted patients who were of a dark skin colour one by one, to check which language they spoke and to listen to their accent. The local language here is Tswana or Pedi. If they found that you don’t know those languages, they turned you away,” said the security officer, whose station is not far from the pedestrian entrance.

Since 4 August, Operation Dudula has been trying to deny access to patients and employees from other countries.

“I’m here at 5:30 in the morning. Just before 8am this morning, a member of Operation Dudula was speaking through a loudspeaker saying they don’t want makwerekwere. On Monday, they checked their ID documents before people could enter the hospital. Today, they were about five or six of them outside. I think they wanted to scare people away because they just stood there until the police arrived,” he added.

Last Friday, the Gauteng MEC for Health obtained a court interdict against the members from threatening or denying access to patients and employees. The interdict was pinned to the notice board outside the hospital.

When GroundUp arrived just after 10am, a handful of Operation Dudula members were still gathered outside. Some were shouting that foreigners should leave.

Chairperson of Operation Dudula in Atteridgeville and regional coordinator in Greater Tshwane Elias Makgwadi said they were picketing outside the hospital entrance to get management to enforce the hospital’s admission rules and not admit “illegal foreign nationals”.

“We are saying, enforce your own rules. If illegal foreign nationals have been admitted to hospitals they must be discharged to law enforcement officers and immigration officers. That’s why we’re here, ” said Makgwadi.

Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) put up a tent outside the hospital entrance and started chanting songs. Provincial spokesperson Phillip Makwala told the crowd: “Operation Dudula is acting as doctors, they are interfering with the process of the South African Police Service and the immigration office.”

Police officers were stationed outside the hospital.

Verrah Frace, from Zomba in Malawi, condemned the xenophobia. She works as a domestic worker in Laudium, west of Pretoria. Frace, who had come to visit her sick sister, said it was painful to see what Operation Dudula was doing.

“I came to South Africa in 2019 to look for a job because we are very poor back in Malawi. We are in South Africa to earn a living,” said Frace.

GroundUp heard a hospital employee wearing a pharmacy tag praising the Operation Dudula members. “These people get our medicine for free. They get everything for free. You guys are helping us. You are doing a great job,” said the employee before going back inside the hospital.

James Chasiya, from Magochi in Malawi, was at the hospital to see his wife who had given birth to a premature baby. He arrived in South Africa in 2014 and works as a plumber, living in one room in Laudium with his wife.

“Sometimes the piece jobs are hard to come by so I sell some of the furniture I have in order to pay rent. It’s not as easy living here as people think. We struggle. My wife works at a creche but it’s still hard. I’m undocumented so I can’t find a real job. There’s no way I can pay for a private hospital,” said Chasiya.

Head of Communication for the Gauteng Department of Health Motalatale Modiba had not responded to GroundUp’s questions by the time of publication.

The health department’s Motalatale Modiba said that the facility reported that operations are continuing as normal with no change in the number of patients.

“There is now increased police monitoring the situation. Patients are no longer obstructed from coming into the facility. The Department would like to assure patients that the hospital continues to render services to all who need such care,” he said.

Modiba said the department will not hesitate “to call law enforcement agencies to act against those that put the lives of patients and staff at risk”. He said the Department obtained a court interdict on 26 August from the High Court in Pretoria “to prevent a group of people from threatening, preventing and denying patients (deemed to be non-South African) and employees at Kalafong Hospital from accessing the facility to receive medical attention and to administer care respectively”.

Written by Mosima Rafapa

Republished from GroundUp under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Source: GroundUp