Tensions flare between Operation Dudula, Abahlali baseMjondolo
Despite disruptions, Operation Dudula resumed its march and proceeded to the SAHRC offices, where they were able to hand over their memorandum to SAHRC chairperson Chris Nissen, who was given 10 days to respond.
Operation Dudula also raised two specific housing complaints. One involves a woman who was allegedly displaced after her house was hijacked and is now homeless. The second is a case where a woman faces eviction on July 29, allegedly because her home was given to a foreign national. Both matters are reportedly under review by the SAHRC.
Nissen said the commission would study the memorandum and look into ways to address the concerns. 'We will assess what is in the memorandum and see how we can intervene or improve the current situation,' he said.
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IOL News
2 hours ago
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Giwusa slams Operation Dudula for denying migrants healthcare access
Soweto clinic incident: Operation Dudula women disrupt healthcare services. Image: Leon Lestrade Independent Newspapers The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) condemned Operation Dudula, and March and March, for denying migrants access to healthcare. According to the union, these 'xenophobic acts' were a violation of the most fundamental human rights and a dangerous diversion from the real crisis in the healthcare system. The union said it was a crisis created by 'neoliberal austerity, corporate looting and profiteering, corruption, and mismanagement'. GIWUSA President, Mametlwe Sebei, alluded to the crisis confronting the country's healthcare sector. "It is true that the clinics, hospitals and other healthcare services in our working-class communities are failing the poor, including the elderly, children, disabled and chronically ill people, who can't afford long queues," Sebei said. "Equally, they fail everyone with shortages in staff of critical healthcare professionals, including doctors, dentists, nurses, and specialists, a lack of essential equipment, beds and medicines." Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading Sebei said the issue of blaming and denying migrants access to healthcare is scapegoating and serves in the fracture and weaken working-class organisations. "This weakness of organisation is responsible for disunity and poor capacity to fightback, which in turn has allowed the state to divest and privatise public services, at the same time as it has demoralised the working class and opened a wide vacuum for all sorts of political opportunists and populists to scapegoat the crises on the most vulnerable layers of the working class, the migrants." According to Sebei, it is on those basis that they reject this stance which they call a poison. "Migrant workers are part of our class — exploited, underpaid, and struggling alongside us. Our fight is not with each other, but with the system that keeps healthcare a privilege for the few and a site for accumulation of capital," Sebei said. Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX) also came out condemning the ongoing actions by Operation Dudula of preventing migrants from accessing healthcare facilities in South Africa. Mike Ndlovu from KAAX said blocking access to healthcare, a fundamental is a violation of Section 27 of our Constitution and is unacceptable. "These actions, which include clinic blockades, intimidation, demands for identity documents, and the violent exclusion of vulnerable individuals, including pregnant women and children, violate both South African and international law. They perpetuate a harmful rhetoric that unfairly blames migrants for systemic failures while distracting from the real causes of the healthcare crisis," Ndlovu said. "The narrative promoted by Operation Dudula, falsely claiming migrants are the primary cause of overcrowded clinics and failing services, is contradicted by evidence. Migrants constitute only approximately 4% of public hospital admissions, primarily seeking essential obstetric and emergency care." The Star
IOL News
7 hours ago
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Healthcare workers could be colluding with Operation Dudula
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This comes after a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) assessment to understand the severity of the blocking of non-South Africans from accessing healthcare found some security staff and healthcare staff working in collusion with anti-migrant groups. The organisation expressed its deep concern over the physical blocking of non-South Africans, including pregnant women, people living with HIV, chronic patients and children - particularly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ 'For several weeks now, anti-migrant groups have camped outside dozens of clinics and hospitals in Gauteng, preventing non-South Africans from entering public health facilities to seek medical care, irrespective of their legal documentation status,' MSF said. MSF called for immediate action by the department and relevant provincial departments of health to guarantee the right of access to healthcare for all. The MSF-launched assessment to understand the severity of these blockages saw their team visit 15 hospitals and clinics in Gauteng, where they witnessed patients being turned away from more than half of these healthcare facilities by groups of between two and 10 people, wearing civilian clothing. The groups are either stationed at the gate or inside facilities and demand identification from every person who tries to enter, turning away those they deem non-South African. From MSF's assessment, the issue was more widespread at primary healthcare clinics (PHCs) than hospitals. 'Our team even witnessed two clinics where security staff and healthcare workers worked in collusion with these anti-migrant groups. We urge the Department of Health to immediately address healthcare facilities who are enabling or encouraging any kind of denial of healthcare,' said MSF Southern Africa's Director of Operational Support Unit, Claire Waterhouse. The MSF team also visited and called nearly 50 patients who indicated that they were denied access to healthcare in 24 healthcare facilities in and around Johannesburg, Durban and Tshwane. The patients consisting primarily of late-term pregnant women and people with diabetes, hypertension and HIV, have expressed fear, panic and confusion. Most informed MSF that they already struggle financially and are unable to buy medication or afford private medical care. *Thando, a 33-year-old woman, was turned away on July 14 from a queue inside a hospital in Gauteng by an anti-migrant group for being undocumented. She is a 16-week high-risk pregnant patient who is also hypertensive. 'I already knew of the situation at the hospital when I went because another girl had already told me that foreigners were being turned away. But I still decided to try. So, I got to the hospital early in the morning at 7am. There were about seven to eight people in the queue already'. A man randomly appeared holding a South African ID card. 'He waved it, walking around and showing us. He said that if any of us didn't have something like what he was holding, or if a passport didn't have a permit, we should start getting out. The nurses were there, and they started laughing, supporting him. They said we don't pay tax, and they are tired of us. They said we can go; it will be less work for them. Only four people were left inside when the rest of us had to leave,' added Thando. MSF said South Africans who have lost or forgotten their ID documents, or those they assumed 'did not look or sound South African' enough, are also losing access. *The patient's name has been changed. Cape Times
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Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has revealed the outcome of his meeting with the anti-migrant group Operation Dudula. The meeting on Tuesday aimed to address the issue of foreign nationals' access to health services. Operation Dudula has been blocking undocumented foreigners from receiving medical care in public clinics and hospitals, claiming they are adding pressure to the already overburdened healthcare system. In an interview with the SABC, Motsoaledi said he explained how the process of immigration works, emphasising that no-one should be denied healthcare, regardless of their documentation status. 'I told them they might be solving what looks like a legitimate problem but using the wrong means,' he said. 'In health, we treat everybody who enters who is sick, and they can't expect us to chase people away, regardless of their nationality. It is just not allowed in healthcare.' He said the group suggested that clinic and hospital clerks should be the ones turning away illegal foreigners from receiving medical care if they can't prove their identity as they did not sign an oath like doctors and nurses. 'If we instruct the clerks not to give anybody a file and they go out and die, we are going to be sued. Imagine a pregnant woman who enters a hospital, is refused care, and goes out to deliver a baby in the street.' Motsoaledi said patients can't be denied medical care even if they can't provide proof of identity. He highlighted the issue of many African countries that have not been able to register all their citizens. 'On the issue of civil registration and vital statistics, it is a problem across the entire African continent. Many African countries have not been able to register all their citizens. In fact, according to the statistics we have, the country that is farthest ahead in registering its citizens is Egypt. 'In South Africa, we have 89% documentation, which means 11% of South Africans are not documented. If you look at our population, 11% would be about 6-million people. They don't have any form of documentation but they are not illegal because they are in their country; they are South Africans.' He warned that many South Africans without IDs would suffer if all patients were required to produce proof of identification when visiting health facilities. 'If you continue to do it the way you are doing it, you are going to turn away many South Africans who are legitimate but do not have documents. Having worked in home affairs, I have met such people. I have met people who are 64 or 65 who are South Africans but never had documents, so [I am saying] be very careful.' Motsoaledi said there was no proper conclusion to the meeting. 'I advised them that problems are solved through the law. We can't have the law of the jungle.'
