Health minister warns Operation Dudula on healthcare access for undocumented immigrants
Operation Dudula has once again vowed to continue its anti-illegal immigrant campaign at public health facilities across the country, despite a meeting with Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, on Monday.
Image: Itumeleng English / Indepedent Newspapers
Despite a stern warning from the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Operation Dudula has vowed to continue with its anti-illegal immigrants campaign, which has been preventing alleged undocumented foreigners from accessing healthcare assistance at public healthcare facilities across the country.
The movement's hardline stance comes a day after the members of the organisation met with Motsoaledi on Monday.
On Tuesday, Motsoaledi, while speaking to SABC News, expressed deep concern over Operation Dudula's campaign, which has received criticism from the government and civil society organisations.
He stated that his gripe arises because the campaign might lead to eligible South Africans being turned away.
"I responded to them (Operation Dudula) in two ways. Firstly, I want the country to know that the issue of civil registration is a problem in the whole continent. Many African countries have not been able to register all their people. In fact, according to the statistics, the only country that is far ahead of it is Egypt, as it has achieved the registration of 98%. This means that 2% of Egyptians do not have any documentation. In South Africa, we are at 89% documentation. This means 11% of South Africans are undocumented. If you look at our population, this is about 6 million people," he said.
According to the minister, as a result, those who are not registered are not illegal but are rather undocumented due to various reasons, which is why assuming that people are illegal is dangerous.
"This does not mean they are illegal because they are South Africans who do not have documents as their details do not appear on our database. A prime example of this is Thabo Bester. We found out that most of his relatives were not registered. That is why, if they do it the way they are doing it, you are going to turn away many South Africans. Having worked in Home Affairs, I met such people who are South African but without documents. So, I said to them, they must be very careful and know exactly what they are doing," he added.
When asked by the movement if nothing should be done to remedy the situation, he explained that during his tenure as Home Affairs minister, he introduced the Border Management Authority and other legislative reforms, which are meant to address their concerns.
"They then asked: Do we just fold our arms? I said no, as a country, we are not saying we must do nothing. When I was at Home Affairs, we launched the BMA to try and make borders safer. Secondly, I reviewed all the immigration laws and drew a new White Paper on Immigration to repeal the Citizenship Act, the Identification Act, the Refugee Act, and the Immigration Act, and start them from the beginning because of the number of mistakes," he said.
Responding to the minister's concerns, Operation Dudula National Executive Committee member Thami Madondo accused politicians of failing South African citizens by not enforcing the country's laws, adding that the Constitution has also failed South Africans on issues of immigration.
"Politicians are politicising the matter, and no one wants to uphold the laws of this country. The minister told us about the white paper, which is currently sitting idly after we made our contributions as civil society on the issues it seeks to resolve," he said.
Furthermore, the movement has indicated that it was aware that there are many South Africans without the right documents, which is why it also helps those acquire the necessary documents.
"We are aware that government inefficiencies have left many South Africans without proper documentation. Our approach is to identify and support these individuals, working with local structures and community leaders to help them secure their papers. The distinction between undocumented citizens and undocumented foreign nationals is critical, and our members are expected to make it.
"Lastly, the white paper proposed in 2024 seeks to bridge the gap in national security matters but has yet to be gazetted. It is still outstanding in the Home Affairs minister's office."
Meanwhile, the DA, through its health spokesperson, Michéle Clarke, said it has written to the Acting Minister of Police, Prof Firoz Cachalia, requesting him to deploy members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) public order policing unit to monitor the situation at various healthcare facilities in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
"The DA utterly condemns Operation Dudula and March on March’s despicable hindering and intimidation of foreign nationals seeking health care in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. We call on the provincial departments of Health and SAPS to ensure that all individuals seeking health care are protected from xenophobic attacks and intimidation allegedly perpetrated by members of these organisations," Clarke said.