The recent high-handed and self-authorised diabolical actions of Operation Dudula and March and March, with members manning access points to state hospitals and clinics, requiring persons to provide identification and denying access to foreigners for health care, refer.
Why are the police that are present generally in the aforesaid areas standing by idly and allowing this illegality to prevail, like in many instances in the 2021 unrest? Pertinent tenets of the South African Constitution, especially Chapter 2, are being flagrantly violated.
Government, especially police and health ministries, must act without further delay to take decisive action hereon so that good sense will prevail and this abomination is attended to.
The actions of the aforesaid bodies practising xenophobia are reprehensible and divisive. They cause one to believe that we have reverted to the jungle and law and order no longer exist in Mzansi. Have these overzealous organisations forgotten which countries, mainly African, helped us in the dark days of apartheid, offered refuge to our persecuted and oppressed peoples and supported us generally?
Yes, there are challenges with state health care, and good interventions must be made so that tangible improvements result. For a start, the state, in all three tiers, must prioritise issues, cut down on wasteful, fruitless and unnecessary expenditure and allocate additional funds for healthcare generally with additional personnel employed. Health care for foreigners must of necessity be regulated, but outright refusal is inhumane and deplorable.
It would be of benefit to the country if Operation Dudula and March and March “volunteered” their services to the Border Management Authority, which would benefit from additional manpower at no cost.
Both entities have sadly caused ubuntu (humanity) to die prematurely by their misdeeds. Their so-called patriotism is hypocritical.
Simon T Dehal | Verulam