PHM Statement Against Xenophobia
The People’s Health Movement South Africa (PHM-SA) notes with alarm the continued efforts of certain parties to obstruct access to health care facilities across South Africa for foreign nationals and undocumented individuals. Reports of individuals seeking health care services – including women and children – being forcibly removed, intimidated or blocked from entering facilities are highly concerning.
These actions by “Operation Dudula”, “March and March”, as well as other affiliated organisations and individuals, are contrary to the Constitutional principles upon which our democracy was founded.
We condemn in the strongest terms the behaviour of these actors.
These are NOT friends of the poor! These are NOT friends of the disenfranchised!
If they were, we would see them participate constructively in any of the numerous campaigns and activities to address health access challenges that face this nation and continent. We do NOT see this!
Participation in community-led efforts to counter healthcare austerity, promote the insourcing of community health workers, support the establishment and work of clinic committees, increase investment in primary level care and Primary Health Care (PHC) principles, and activities that promote health, would mark these organisations as genuinely representative of the poor and marginalised.
So would actively campaigning to improve health governance, financial accountability, rural access challenges, and the implementation of the Health Market Inquiry recommendations. Popular involvement in ANY ONE of these key areas of health activism would build social solidarity and improve health for all.
Instead, they choose to use the lives of women, children and human beings seeking health care as pawns in a game of political chess. Their cruel actions are not based in health data nor on real public health concerns. Health is not the battlefield for such rhetoric.
They demonstrate a clear disregard for the suffering of those who are simply seeking access to basic health services. They demonstrate a disregard for the legal process, the health protections under Section 27 of the Constitution and various pieces of legislation such as the National Health Act and the Immigration Act.
Moreover, they overlook the knock-on effect of interruptions to healthcare access on the health outcomes of our nation. Health and illness are the only things that truly will never respect borders, as diseases spread within communities irrespective of your nationality or legal status, Furthermore, the indirect costs of delaying chronic treatment and routine care increase the need for costly emergency and urgent care services later.
We call on all the named organisations as well as any other groups who have directly or indirectly endorsed these actions – such at the Patriotic Alliance (PA), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK), the NFP, Action SA – to unequivocally distance themselves from these human rights violations
We call on the South African government – particularly the relevant provincial departments, the National Departments of Health and Justice and Constitutional Development, and the National ministers of these Departments – to respond with the full force of the law in prosecuting these actors where they persist in obstructing the Constitutionally enshrined rights of persons within South Africa to access healthcare.
The implication of not acting decisively to condemn and counter this xenophobic rhetoric, makes them complicit in these actions, and will have long-lasting impacts on not only key health priorities such as HIV treatment coverage, maternal and child health, but also on eroding trust in the South African healthcare system.
Act now. End health xenophobia.