Pretoria - Tempers flared this morning outside Kalafong hospital ahead of the visit of health minister Joe Phaahla when the EFF members had a confrontation with Operation Dudula supporters who were preventing undocumented foreigners from accessing medical services at the facility.
Some EFF members told the Operation Dudula protesters to leave and stop making xenophobic remarks against other Africans and preventing them from using the health centre.
On the other hand, the protesters refused to back down on their mission to call for the hospital to prioritise the locals over foreigners.
Members of the SAPS were on standby to quell the tension and no physical fights were witnessed.
Protesting Operation Dudula members clash with the EFF at Kalafong hospital while the EFF insists that the SAPS enforce the court interdict on the picketers. @IOL @kalafong_health #Kalafong #Hospital @EFFSouthAfrica @OperationDudula #Dudula pic.twitter.com/IO3EmXzFe7
However, some Operation Dudula supporters claimed they were beaten by EFF members yesterday afternoon.
EFF members also confronted the SAPS officers deployed at the healthcare centre, demanding that they enforce a court interdict obtained by the Department of Health on Friday.
They told the police to disperse the protesters in line with the interdict.
Phaahla is expected to visit the hospital to inspect the impact of sporadic protests on the hospital operations.
For the past three weeks protesters have been turning away undocumented foreigners.
Yesterday, the EFF in Gauteng condemned protesters denying migrants access to medical care, saying the action was a blatant human rights violation.
The party called on those responsible for preventing foreigners from receiving medical attention to be held accountable.
“The Department of Health is failing in its mandate to provide quality health care to the people (and) as a result they resort to cheap propaganda that labels immigrants as responsible for the collapse of the health system.
“Migrants are not to blame for the collapse of the health system, Operation Dudula and similar elements should rather direct their anger to those found guilty of looting hospital money for skinny jeans like in the case of the Tembisa hospital,” the EFF said in a media statement.
Doctors Without Borders in South Africa were worried that protests preventing patients, including migrants, from accessing the medical care amounted to xenophobia.
The organisation believed the hostility towards migrants in the health facilities “has been intensifying, fuelled by inflammatory and political statements from government officials, including Limpopo Health MEC, Dr Phophi Ramathuba, who was recently recorded berating a Zimbabwean patient in a health facility, claiming that migrants are overburdening the health system”.
Pretoria News