Gauteng Health MEC calls for an end to blocking of foreign nationals from accessing public healthcare facilities

Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has made an emotional plea for an end to the blocking of foreign nationals from accessing public healthcare facilities.

This follows the recent death of a one-year-old child whose Malawian mother said she was prevented by Operation Dudula members from accessing the Alexandra clinic.

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

Over the past weeks, members and leaders of Operation Dudula have been barricading entrances to public healthcare facilities and turning away people they say are undocumented foreign nationals.

Nkomo-Ralehoko said this is unlawful as public healthcare must be accessible for everyone.

"Health services are for everybody. It doesn't matter whether that mother is having a child who is a Malaiwan, but that child is a child that doesn't deserve to die."

The MEC said the people blocking foreign nationalsfrom accessing healthcare must put themselves in the shoes of others.

READ: EFF accuses Operation Dudula of scapegoating foreigners for government failures

"Before I am an MEC, I am a mother, a grandmother, and how would I feel if my grandchild died because somebody blocked that access in that clinic?"

The Economic Freedom Fighters in Gauteng has since laid criminal charges against Operation Dudula and its leader, Zandile Dabula, accusing the movement of causing the death of the one-year-old.