On Monday Operation Dudula T-shirts protesting inside and outside the clinic, telling immigrants to leave and get health care in their countries of origin. Several people we spoke to said they had not been able to collect their medication or keep their appointments.
Members of Operation Dudula harassed immigrants outside several Gauteng clinics last year, including Hillbrow and Kalafong in Tshwane. The current focus appears to be Jeppe Clinic.
Violet Ncube, from Zimbabwe, says Dudula members ordered her out of the clinic last Friday when she went with her three-year-old granddaughter, who was suffering from flu and a fever.
“Dudula came in and demanded that all foreigners must go out and that only South Africans could receive treatment.” She says some people were assaulted by members of the group.
Ncube went home with the child. Her son went back later to demand that the child be treated, and he was given medication.
Ethel Musonza, also from Zimbabwe Isolated Women in South Africa (ZIWISA), confirmed that Operation Dudula was turning people away from the Jeppe Clinic. “We have immigrants suffering from chronic illnesses such as HIV, high blood pressure, diabetes and other illnesses being unable to access medication ever since Dudula started preying on immigrants in the clinics. We are having to ask for those who have extra tablets to help others.”
In November last year, Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX), ZIWISA, and other organisations staged a picket at Hillbrow clinic demanding better treatment of immigrants.
“Chasing people away from healthcare on the basis of their nationality is completely inhuman, unfair and illegal,” said Claire Ceruti from KAAX. “The law is clear that everyone has the right to health care whether or not they have papers. It is disgusting for anyone to be denying people who are already vulnerable access to healthcare.”
Ceruti said the healthcare crisis in South Africa would not be solved by denying immigrants access.