Tensions rise at Hillbrow Clinic as Operation Dudula attempts to deny migrants healthcare access
'Since 5am, I have been here. I came to remove my teeth. When I arrived here, I was number four in the line. Look, I am still standing here, and it is 10am. I just want to go inside because my teeth are so painful.'
This is what Jennifer, a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), told Daily Maverick as Operation Dudula once again blocked the entrance to the Hillbrow Clinic in the heart of Johannesburg on Wednesday morning, 25 June 2025.
The group's attempt to prevent foreign nationals from accessing healthcare at the clinic began on Monday when security guards were forced to close the clinic's gates as tensions escalated. Despite being removed by the police earlier this week, Operation Dudula returned to the healthcare centre and continued to ask the clinic's patients for identification, in contravention of South Africa's Constitution and the Immigration Act.
Section 27 of the Constitution explicitly states that everyone living in South Africa has the right to access basic healthcare services, and no one may be denied emergency medical treatment even if they are undocumented. Additionally, the Immigration Act stipulates that only immigration officers and members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) have the authority to ask citizens and foreign nationals to produce valid documentation.
Despite the unlawfulness of Operation Dudula's attempt to stop people they suspect of being in the country illegally, the anti-migrant group insists that they are within their rights to deny migrants access to healthcare.
'Law enforcers are failing to implement the Immigration Act, so we will do what we have to as concerned citizens to make sure the rule of law is respected. The Criminal Procedures Act of 1977 allows us to perform a citizen's arrest on anyone we suspect to be a criminal. What we are doing here is stopping criminals from accessing free healthcare and burdening our systems,' Operation Dudula member Shimphiwe Shabangu told Daily Maverick.
Shabangu insisted that they were not preventing people with valid documentation or who needed urgent medical care from accessing the clinic. But Daily Maverick witnessed the organisation's members doing exactly that.
The publication saw Operation Dudula members, clad in military-style regalia, stop a woman whose face was caked in dry blood from a wound on her forehead from entering the clinic. The woman, an asylum seeker from the DRC, showed the members her asylum permit but was still denied entry.
Speaking to Daily Maverick on the sidelines, the woman said: 'They say I cannot go in here, only South Africans can. I have been here for 23 years, and I have my asylum papers, but they still are not allowing me in. You can see I am bleeding, but I cannot get help. This is not how you treat people, even if you don't like them.'
The police arrived at the clinic just after 10am, and after a tense exchange with Shabangu the officers successfully stopped Operation Dudula from preventing access to the clinic. However, the group refused to leave the premises, vowing to mobilise forces to continue the unlawful action.
Right groups bid to stop Operation Dudula
Earlier this month, Daily Maverick reported on several rights groups' legal bid to stop Operation Dudula from assaulting or harassing foreign nationals and to stop it from impeding access to healthcare services and schools for the children of international migrants.
The groups accused Operation Dudula of illegally demanding that private individuals produce identity documents to prove their right to be in South Africa, and obstructing access to healthcare facilities and schools by threatening and removing migrants, among other things.
The case has been reserved for judgment, but if the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg finds in favour of the civil society organisations, it would bar Operation Dudula from impeding access to healthcare, as it did on Wednesday.
Shabangu insisted that the civil society organisations' case was weak, and was confident that the judge would dismiss the interdict. DM
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