As tensions came to a head this week between Operation Dudula movement and EFF members at Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, matters of life and death played second fiddle to the chaos.
Police were firing rubber bullets to quell the violence between the two groups and Health Minister Joe Phaahla intervened to negotiate an end to the protest.
While police officers were in pursuit of a protester who had injured another with a stone before running inside the hospital grounds to evade arrest, the family of a 16-year-old girl who had just died was sent back home. The cops who were supposed to interview her father regarding her death were not available.
The father from Atteridgeville said his daughter tried to commit suicide. “When we visited her last week, she told me that she tried to kill herself by overdosing on pills … She was getting better. She was supposed to be discharged on Saturday,” he said.
Accompanied by two elderly female family members, he told Sunday World that after waiting for three hours for the police and to be able to complete the paperwork required to transfer her body to a morgue of their choice, they were sent back home.
“We are still trying to deal with our loss, and then there are these processes that require the police that delaying us … ” he said, “I was told that the police are not available to speak to me today.”
In the visitors’ waiting room at the entrance of the hospital, Grace Musingarimi was a ball of nerves. Accompanied by her 15-year-old son Roysten, Musingarimi said had it not been for her husband’s frail condition, she would not have come to the hospital because she does not feel safe.
“He had an operation yesterday,” said the 49-year-old, explaining that her husband has been unwell since he was involved in a car accident last year, which resulted in him having a hip replacement. She said he experienced complications following the hip replacement surgery.
“He was so weak when I saw him, I decided to bring my son to see him before he goes back to Zimbabwe for the start of the school term,” she said.
Musingarimi, who has been in South Africa for 11 years and lives in Lotus Gardens near Atteridgeville, said she is considering going back to Zimbabwe when her husband’s condition improves. She said because their papers expired two years ago, she does not feel safe.
Minister Phaahla visited the hospital on Thursday when the violence between Operation Dudula and EFF members worsened, following weeks of protests by Operation Dudula. He later held a meeting with Operation Dudula leadership in the area and persuaded them to end the protest.
Musa Ndlovu, project coordinator for the Doctors without Borders’ (MSF) Tshwane Migration Project, said as an organisation that provides humanitarian support, they also flag issues that infringe on the rights of others.
“It is unconstitutional and has an element of discrimination to not allow people to access medical attention based on their nationality,” he said.
Connie Mkansi, a vendor outside the hospital, said she has not witnessed the level of violence, police presence and chaos in the 19 years she has selling corn and nuts there.
“Yes we have serious problems, but you cannot solve these issues of illegal immigrants, hospital overcrowding, shortage of beds and medicine through fighting each other,” she said, “We must sit down and talk.”
Also Read: Minister convinces Dudula members to end Kalafong protest
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