Civil group blames undocumented migrants for SA healthcare strain

Operation Dabula claims that the strain undocumented migrants are placing on South Africa’s healthcare system is evident. The civil organisation also says that public complaints are driving its actions.

This statement comes after it was criticised for a recent campaign preventing undocumented migrants from accessing public healthcare facilities.

Operation Dudula president Zandile Dabula says this is not the first time they have run this campaign.

“This is not the first programme of this magnitude; we did it about two years ago. And the Department of Home Affairs and the Health Department promised to do something about it, but in the past month, actually, we’ve been getting a lot of calls from people complaining, and that’s when we started our campaign. Visiting these healthcare facilities because we have a very ignorant government that doesn’t listen to its own citizens. Now people end up having to complain to Dudula rather than going to the correct departments.”

“People have been complaining that they go to the clinics; it’s full. Abo gogo [the grandmothers] wake up very early in the morning to go and queue, and by 12, the line will be cut because the healthcare workers won’t manage to work 24 hours. So, they will cut the line and ask them to come back tomorrow. Sometimes, if they are being seen by the nurses, then there is no medication.”