South Africa's Operation Dudula: The anti-migrant movement blocking foreigners from healthcare

Activists are stopping foreigners going to some health clinics with little push-back from the state.

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What started as a small local action in one area in 2022 has spread, with activists from the avowedly anti-migrant group, Operation Dudula, picketing some hospitals and clinics in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. They check identity cards and stop anyone who is not South African from entering.

"Dudula" means to remove something by force in the Zulu language.

Despite some arrests, the authorities seem unable to prevent the pickets.

The site of their latest campaign is in Diepsloot – a poor township of more than 200,000 people near the country's commercial hub.