PP Office denies claims it's in talks with ZHRC over concerns Zim nationals being denied healthcare in SA

JOHANNESBURG - The Office of the Public Protector has rubbished claims that it’s in talks with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) over concerns that foreign nationals are being denied healthcare in South Africa.

This follows a run-in between some lobby groups, such as Operation Dudula, some political parties, and foreign nationals at hospitals and clinics.

Operation Dudula is among groups that said foreign nationals are putting strain on the country’s already stretched resources.

Reports emerged over the weekend that the ZHRC, which plays the role of public protector in that country, had lodged a formal complaint with its counterpart in South Africa.

The public protector’s acting spokesperson, Ndili Msoki, said the Section 9 institution hosted a ZHRC delegation in 2024 but on matters unrelated to the barring of Zimbabweans from South Africa’s facilities.

"The visit covered several issues commonly shared between institutions with a similar mandate, including but not limited to best practices within the environment, corruption, as well as challenges relating to service delivery in both countries, among those being health care systems."

Msoki said the public protector shared best practices to help strengthen the ZHRC’s institutional capacity.

"At no point did the discussions then, nor recently, focus on the denial of Zimbabwean nationals' access to healthcare services in South Africa. We are, therefore, surprised by reports in the media about discussions, which purportedly occurred recently, and were centred around matters relating to Zimbabwean nationals being denied access to healthcare services in South Africa, neither do we have record of a complaint of that kind."