Mapaballo Borotho
- Three Operation Dudula members were arrested for disrupting services at the Lilian Ngoyi Clinic by demanding patients’ ID documents.
- They were facing charges including public violence, trespassing, and violating the National Health Act.
- Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia condemned the group’s actions as xenophobic vigilantism that undermines human rights and the law.
Gauteng police have arrested three members of Operation Dudula for disrupting services at public health facilities.
The women, aged between 49 and 60, were taken into custody after storming the maternity ward at the Lilian Ngoyi Clinic, where they allegedly demanded patients’ ID documents to verify their nationalities.
They were charged with public violence, trespassing, and contravening the National Health Act before being released on warning.
Operation Dudula has been targeting undocumented foreign nationals in public health facilities, claiming they are straining an already overburdened healthcare system.
Civil society movement Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia has condemned the group’s actions, describing them as “vigilantism” that has no place in South Africa’s constitutional democracy.
“For weeks now, Operation Dudula and other xenophobic groups have engaged in clearly criminal behaviour by illegally taking the law into their own hands, blocking people from accessing healthcare based on nationality or documentation status,” the organisation said.
Kopanang Africa accused the group of using violent and unlawful tactics, including illegal evictions, harassment of informal traders, spreading disinformation on social media, and issuing threats against organisations that assist migrants.
“These are criminal acts that directly violate and undermine the very laws they claim to uphold. Operation Dudula and its supporters are fundamentally opposed to human rights, equality, and social justice”.
