The public protector's office has clarified it has not received complaints lodged by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) regarding the denial of Zimbabwean nationals' access to health-care services in South Africa.
There has been a growing trend of advocacy groups such as Operation Dudula blocking illegal foreigners from receiving medical care. The small fringe group has been protesting outside clinics and hospitals, checking patients' nationalities and turning away non-South Africans.
In a recent interview with Newzroom Afrika, ZHRC chairperson Jessie Majome said she had a conversation with public protector Kholeka Gcaleka about how the two countries can resolve the issue.
“This is not a new conversation. In September 2024 Gcaleka hosted the ZHRC for a benchmarking and learning visit,” Majome said.
“During the visit we agreed we want to come together and devise ways to come up with lasting solutions to ensure all human beings enjoy their rights freely.”
The public protector's office said it did host the ZHRC delegation last year and no discussions were held about Zimbabweans being denied access to health-care services in South Africa.
“The visit covered several issues commonly shared between institutions with a similar mandate, including but not limited to best practices within the environment, corruption and challenges relating to service delivery in the two countries, among those being health-care systems,” the public protector's office said.
“Consequently, and on the request of the ZHRC, on October 14 the public protector of South Africa shared documents with the ZHRC that would assist to strengthen the ZHRC's institutional capacity to investigate malfeasance in its own country. At no point did the discussions then, or recently, focus on the denial of Zimbabwean nationals' access to health-care services in South Africa.
“We are therefore surprised by reports in the media about discussions, which purportedly occurred recently, and were centred around matters relating to Zimbabwean nationals being denied access to health-care services in South Africa, neither do we have record of a complaint of that kind.”
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