Last week, High Court Judge Leicester Adams handed down an interdict to put an end to Operation Dudulas xenophobic-laced hate speech, intimidation and assault of foreign nationals and blocking their entry to schools, clinics or hospitals.
Denying foreigners access to healthcare facilities, the judge found, clearly violated section 271a of the Constitution, the right to healthcare, which applies to everyone, not just citizens.
While groups like Operation Dudula flood the zone with fear, confusion and misinformation around healthcare access for foreign nationals, that space has been easy to muddy, something only exacerbated by provisions in the National Health Insurance Act.
To understand what the law says about healthcare access for foreigners now, what the NHI Act would change and why it matters for public health, we spoke with Sasha Stevenson, executive director of SECTION27.
Intodays newsletter, Tanya Pampalone explains the NHIs policy paradox.Sign up for our newsletter today.
One of the soldiers in the small army recently spat his message along the busy corridor that leads into Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto: No foreigners! No asylum! No passport! Only South Africans are allowed here! Identify yourself or you are not going in!
The angry video, posted on social media and viewed over half a million times, is Operation Dudulas version of proudly South African.
