Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi says no-one should be denied healthcare regardless of their immigration status.
The minister met anti-immigrant group Operation Dudula on Tuesday to discuss foreigners’ access to health services in SA.
Operation Dudula has been blocking undocumented foreigners from receiving medical care at public clinics and hospitals, claiming they are adding pressure to an already overburdened healthcare system.
In an interview with the SABC, Motsoaledi said he had explained how the process of immigration works, emphasising that no-one should be denied healthcare, regardless of their documentation status.
“I told them they might be solving what looks like a legitimate problem but using the wrong means,” he said. “In health, we treat everybody who enters who is sick, and they can’t expect us to chase people away, regardless of their nationality. It is just not allowed in healthcare.”
He said the group suggested that clinic and hospital clerks should turn away illegal foreigners because, unlike doctors and nurses, they do not party to the Hippocratic Oath.
“But if we instruct the clerks not to give anybody a file and they go out and die, we are going to be sued. Imagine a pregnant woman who enters a hospital, is refused care, and goes out to deliver a baby in the street.”
Motsoaledi said patients can’t be denied medical care even if they can’t provide proof of identity, noting that many African countries that have not been able to register all their citizens.
“On the issue of civil registration and vital statistics, it is a problem across the entire African continent ... according to the statistics we have, the country that is furthest ahead in registering its citizens is Egypt.”
“In SA, we have 89% documentation, which means 11% of South Africans are not documented ... [that] would be about 6-million people. They don’t have any form of documentation but they are not illegal because they are in their country; they are South Africans.”
He warned that many South Africans without IDs would suffer if all patients were required to produce proof of identification when visiting healthcare facilities.
“If you continue to do it the way you are doing it, you are going to turn away many South Africans who are legitimate but do not have documents. Having worked in home affairs, I have met such people. I have met people who are 64 or 65 who are South Africans but never had documents, so [I am saying] be very careful.”
Motsoaledi said he had advised members of Operation Operation Dudula “that problems are solved through the law. We can’t have the law of the jungle”.
