Cape Town – The GOOD party has demanded action against “bubbling xenophobia” that has seen vigilantes prevent ailing foreign nationals from seeking treatment at state hospitals and clinics.
GOOD Secretary-General Brett Herron on Wednesday, 9 July 2025, said: “The State must send an unequivocal message to the xenophobes blocking access by foreign nationals to health care facilities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal that people engaging in vigilantism will be arrested and prosecuted”.
Herron said that South Africans have every right to demand that the state uses immigration laws to control the inflow of foreign nationals, and every right to demand a government that radically improves the delivery of services and dignity to desperately struggling citizens.
“But they have no right to take the law into their own hands,” Herron stated.
However, Operation Dudula leader Zandile Dabula has stated that the group would not stop preventing foreign nationals from receiving healthcare at state facilities.
“It is noteworthy that one of the organisations involved in the campaign to stop foreign nationals from receiving medical treatment is a political party that is a member of the Government of National Unity and has therefore sworn to uphold the Constitution,” explained Herron.
“The Constitution guarantees the right to health care for all people in the land. Xenophobic organisations and political parties that don’t like that Constitutional provision have the option of using the courts and/or parliament to seek to change it.”
South Africa has experienced sporadic outbreaks of xenophobic violence since 1994, peaking in 2008 when nearly 62 foreign nationals were murdered in an orgy of violence, looting and vandalism.
“Since then, stoked by politicians and organised xenophobes, violence and threats of violence have been a constantly bubbling presence,” Herron said.
“Though largely centred in Gauteng, incidents have occurred throughout South Africa – including in the Western Cape, where 3 000 Zimbabwean farmworkers in De Doorns were displaced in 2009.”
Herron said very few perpetrators have ever been arrested or charged.
“This probably reflects the State’s difficulty in defending its open border policy to a nation in which the daily lived reality of tens of millions of citizens is dire poverty and chronic underdevelopment,” Herron said.
“It’s a recipe for recurring disaster. Only the State has the power to change the ingredients.
“There are no laws against populist identity politics, but there are laws against hate speech, forced business closures, unlawful evictions, and inciting violence.
“There are also laws to prevent laws from being selectively applied or subjected to the whims of politicians.”
A group of civil society applicants was presently awaiting the Gauteng High Court’s decision on their application to halt Operation Dudula’s allegedly unlawful actions and compel the government to implement its National Action Plan against xenophobia.
