by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – A XENOPHOBIC storm is brewing and a health crisis exacerbating in South Africa as some pressure groups and political party activists deny only black foreign nationals access to healthcare at public centres.
Fears are rife this is a ticking time bomb with a potential to explode into the deadly xenophobic violence that gripped the country in 2008, leaving more than 60 people dead.
That was when poverty, unemployment and resentment towards foreigner nationals of African perceived to be “taking jobs and resources” meant for South Africans triggered the crisis.
In recent weeks, there has been a proliferation of anti-migrant groups, seen as a law unto themselves, gathering in hospitals and clinics to block access by mainly black foreign nationals.
Among the groups leading the so-called operations are the so-called Operation Dudula, which has been active for years, and a new movement, March and March.
Activists from the Patriotic Alliance (PA), which is in the unity government running South Africa, and ActionSA of former Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba, have also been involved.
They believe foreign nationals- documented or undocumented-are a burden to the strained South African health system and must seek health care from private facilities or return to their country.
This has been described in some circles as Afrophobia, as these pressure groups and political parties mainly carry out such operations at impoverished communities – in Durban and Johannesburg mostly- where locals and foreign nationals scramble for scant resources and services.
Areas where the White minority, including some undocumented, or those largely occupied by people of Asian origin, are exempt from such so-called operations.
The illegal crackdowns have continued despite warnings by the government that these actions at public health centres are illegal and an affront to the Constitution.
Hailed as one of the most progressive globally, it affirms the foundational values of human dignity, equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms.
Section 27(1) of the Constitution provides that “everyone has the right to have access to healthcare services.”
“This right is not subject to an individual’s nationality or immigration status. Denying individual healthcare based on their origin is a violation of our laws and values as a nation,” the government has stated.
It noted that additionally, South Africa was a signatory to several regional and international agreements that aim to ensure access to healthcare for its citizens and, in some cases, for individuals within its borders.
The South Africa Police Service (SAPS), along with other law enforcement agencies, are implementing an operational plan to address the crisis.
These frustrations from locals are a result of the government struggling to provide jobs and services to locals, while at the same time the country experiences a surge from migrants from across Africa, especially neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is going through decades long crises and its health sector has crumbled. South Africa, having the highest number of people living with HIV globally (estimated at 8 million), has not been spared the funding cuts to health by the United States government.
Locals accuse foreign nationals, mainly Zimbabwean, of hoarding anti-retroviral drugs and smuggling them to their homeland for sale.
The South African government said it understood the frustrations of many citizens regarding the pressures on public services, including overburdened clinics and exhausted healthcare workers locally.
“Taking the law into one’s own hands is unacceptable and undermines the values enshrined in our democratic Constitution,” it warned however.
It insisted on “zero-tolerance” to lawlessness.
The South African Human Rights Commission also alerted the activists they were violating the Constitution.
The anti-migrant pressure groups and activists have vowed to defy the directive and accuse the government of snubbing locals at the expense of foreign nationals who they believe have “too much” rights in South Africa.
Operation Dudula leader, Zandile Dabula, disclosed a march was scheduled for July 17 in Johannesburg, in protest of the human rights commission and human rights organisations advocating for the protection of migrants’ rights.
“Operation Dudula is going to make sure that you close down. You are a problem to patriotic South Africans,” she issued a message to the human rights organisations.
Last week, there was a severe clash at the Addington Hospital in Durban, featuring police and alleged foreign nationals, mainly Somalians and Nigerians.
There were reports of gunfire, injuries and direct attacks on SAPS.
“These people (foreign nationals) have the nerve to protest in a foreign country (South African). They are failing to face their governments,” activist Khanyi Monyane opined.
Dudula and like-minded groups argue they are “fixing the country.”
Foreign nationals decried how the standoff with the pressure groups had impacted on their health.
“I am on medication for a chronic illness and my daughter cannot receive her flu shorts because we cannot be allowed access without documentation,” said a Zimbabwean-born woman.
“They say we must get help at private clinics or go back to my country to receive medication. I don’t have money for both,” she said outside the Hillbrow Clinic in Johannesburg.
Last month, a video went viral of some South African activists ordering a woman, who was apparently begging at a traffic intersection with some minors thought to be her children, to “go back to Mnangagwa” and seek help.
Emmerson Mnangagwa is Zimbabwe’s president.
Some women were also recently captured on social media insulting a heavily-pregnant Zimbabwean woman at a Pretoria hospital and ordering her not to return.
In 2012, then Limpopo member of the mayoral committee and now provincial premier, for scolding a bed-ridden Zimbabwean woman, also saying Zimbabwean patients’ medical bills were straining South Africa and must be the responsibility of Mnangagwa.
Mmusi Maimane, one time leader of the then official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), blamed the influx of foreign nationals in South African clinics and hospitals on the South African government’s so-called policy of quiet diplomacy.
Then, the government was under the African National Congress (ANC), which lost its majority and is now in a unity government with the DA and a number of smaller parties.
Maimane noted the two largest immigrant populations in South Africa were from Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
“The ANC supported and enabled ZANU-PF and FRELIMO. These parties were looting their nations and causing mass poverty,” he said.
FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) and ZANU-PF(Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front) are the ruling parties in their respective countries.
– CAJ News