Operation Dudula scapegoats foreigners for poor service delivery - Dr Simon Howell, criminologist

John Maytham (standing in for Cape Talk's Lester Kiewit) chats with Dr Simon Howell, a criminologist at the University of Cape Town's Centre for Criminology.

Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below:

Operation Dudula and other anti-migrant groups have reportedly disrupted access to healthcare services for foreign nationals at over 50 clinics across South Africa, with a growing presence now also targeting schools. 

According to the Daily Maverick, these xenophobic campaigns are concentrated in Gauteng but are spreading to provinces like the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga.

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  Health Department condemns Operation Dudula's clinic disruptions 

Howell has criticised police inaction, saying authorities are failing to uphold the law by allowing groups to block access to constitutionally guaranteed services like education and healthcare. 

"... those who don't actively step in to prevent people from preventing people from accessing healthcare resources are complicit in the breaking of the law and ought to be dealt with as such."

- Dr Simon Howell, criminologist 

"Healthcare and education are fundamental human rights, so there's not much excuse in my mind for as to why they would not actively engage and ensure and facilitate people's access to these services and anything less than that is both illegal and it's also against the spirit of the Constitution which is such that people who live in South Africa are guaranteed these rights."

- Dr Simon Howell, criminologist 

"The immigrant population is being scapegoated for poor service delivery. It's a lot easier to target people who are maybe marginal, who may be finding their feet in a country, than it is to target a government department... they are the institutions to blame here. They should be held accountable for the lack of service delivery rather than scapegoating the people who need to access those services, who, in terms of statistics at least, have very little to no impact on the services..."

- Dr Simon Howell, criminologist 

Despite widespread public backlash, Operation Dudula appears undeterred, with some members threatening to prevent foreign children from enrolling in schools next.

Scroll up to listen to the full conversation.