Democratic Alliance DA leaders in Johannesburg claim that community activists asked them to produce their national IDs before they could access the Orchards Clinic on Friday 1 August.
DA member of provincial legislature MPL Jack Bloom , Councillor Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku and Councillor Beverley Jacobs were conducting an oversight visit at the clinic when the incident happened.
They had earlier received reports that the activists were barring non-South African citizens accessing the facility, Bloom said in a statement.
This is an outrageous infringement of human rights, and especially so for sick people who can die if they do not get urgent treatment, he added.
We spoke to Sister May, Clinic Manager, who told us this group have been intimidating visitors since last week. She has called in the police , but they have been ineffective in stopping them.
In recent weeks, there have been increasing reports of groups preventing undocumented foreign nationals from accessing public health facilities in some parts of the country.
These groups claim foreign nationals add pressure on already strained facilities and thus disadvantage South Africans.
However, the Department of Health and the South African Human Rights Commission have criticised their actions.
"While government understands the genuine frustrations of many citizens regarding the pressures on public services, including overburdened clinics and exhausted healthcare workers, members of the public are urged to raise such concerns through lawful and appropriate channels, the government said in a statement on 5 July.
Bloom blames Dudula, March and MarchAccording to Bloom, the number of patients at the clinic has dropped to as low as 50 per day from an average of 150. We saw a largely empty clinic on our visit, he said.