DURBAN, August 21, 2025 — Healthcare is a basic human right.
HIAS South Africa is appalled at the unlawful, unjust, and heartbreaking scenes unfolding outside of Addington Hospital in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal in the past few weeks.
Protestors from groups such as Operation Dudula and March for March have blocked off the entrance of this well-known public hospital and demand people entering to produce a South African identity document, failing which they are turned away.
Scenes of pregnant mothers, babies, and the elderly being intimidated and chased away from lifesaving medical care, as well as those needing critical chronic medication being made to flee, go against the laws of a democratic and free South Africa as enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights which guarantee healthcare for all.
The notion that foreign nationals are ‘taking over’ South Africa’s public hospitals is not only dehumanizing and discriminatory but deeply unfounded. Official data from the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town shows that migrants make up only 4% of the population. Whilst we acknowledge there are major challenges within South Africa’s healthcare system, these issues which include staff shortages, underfunding of healthcare facilities, and socio-economic inequality will not be addressed by the targeting of innocent people seeking medical assistance.
Sadly, we note growing instances of medical xenophobia and Afrophobia taking place outside medical facilities in Gauteng and other parts of the country.
As a Jewish humanitarian organization founded to assist the Jews fleeing persecution and scapegoating for being Jewish, HIAS cannot stand by in silence whilst pregnant and nursing mothers and babies, the elderly, and the sick are refused basic human rights simply because of where they were born and the documents they hold.
We call upon the local and national authorities to take urgent, definite, and strong action against vigilante groups perpetrating these illegal acts, and to protect access to healthcare for all who live in South Africa.
HIAS South Africa also urges all South Africans to stand united against xenophobia, and any form of persecution and discrimination.
For more information, contact Alana Pugh-Jones Baranov, HIAS South Africa Country Director at media@hias.org.
