EFF accuses Operation Dudula of scapegoating foreigners for government failures

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has suggested that Operation Dudula is scapegoating foreign nationals for the government’s failure to ensure public health facilities are working optimally. 

On Saturday, the red berets laid a criminal case against the controversial political group and its spokesperson, Zandile Dabula, for allegedly causing the death of a one-year-old child by preventing his Malawian mother from accessing a clinic in Alexandra. 

Operation Dudula has denied this, saying it never instructed its members to block access to the clinic. 

READ: EFF says party’s fight against Operation Dudula is to protect the human rights of South Africans

However, Operation Dudula members have, over the past few weeks, been barricading the entrances of public healthcare facilities and turning away people they say are undocumented foreigners. 

EFF Gauteng chairperson Nkululeko Dunga said ageing infrastructure, understaffing, and corruption at public health facilities are the real problems.

“All that combination of many things, (including) corruption, are as a result of an incompetent government, mismanagement, maladministration and we all just want to defer that attention away from government and identify a sector of society which doesn’t even amount to more than 5% of the population in Gauteng.”