It is the duty of the Federal Govt to save Nigerians in that country from “Operation Dudula” group
Nigerians are now afraid of going to public hospitals in South Africa to avoid being beaten to death or assaulted.” The President of the Nigerian Union South Africa (NUSA), Smart Nwobi, a human rights lawyer, sounded the alarm in an interview with The PUNCH, published on August 24. He said Nigerians were dying daily because members of an anti-migrant group known as “Operation Dudula” prevented them from accessing healthcare in public hospitals in South Africa.
The group alleged that foreigners were overstretching public health facilities in South Africa. “These are just claims that are not backed by facts,” Nwobi asserted. He added that as a result of the group’s antagonism, Nigerians “have resorted to self-medication, which is detrimental to their health.” According to him, there are currently 800,000 Nigerians in South Africa.
Nwobi described how the group targeted foreigners, “especially Nigerians and people from other African countries.” According to him, “they will come to the hospital and ask for your identification card; if you don’t have the South African Citizenship Green Card, they will simply say you should go out of the hospital.” He said even foreigners who had legally become citizens of South Africa by naturalisation but did not speak the local language were ordered out of public hospitals.
“It is simply Afrophobia and xenophobia,” he lamented, describing the group’s posture as “illegal” and “appalling.” He said the healthcare-related offensive against foreigners “started at the beginning of this year, but it was intensified around July and August.”
Indeed, it is concerning that, as Nwobi observed, “the people who are carrying out this act are not government officials or officials of the department of the healthcare system.” It is puzzling that the South African authorities not only allowed such a situation to exist in the first place but are also apparently encouraging its continuation by their inaction.
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Nwobi noted that access to public healthcare is guaranteed under the South African Constitution, Section 27 of 1996, which clearly says that everyone, without any exception, is entitled to the public health system. He also noted that this constitution “was further given flesh by the enactment of the healthcare systems and law.”
He cited the intervention of the country’s Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, who had spoken against the group’s actions preventing foreigners, including Nigerians, from accessing the public healthcare system in the country. The minister had argued that members of the group lacked the power to stop healthcare workers from treating patients at a public health facility, adding that their conduct violated the law.
Evidently, such criticism has not been effective as the group has refused to change its posture. Indeed, according to Nwobi, in the past three or four months, the group had complained that foreign traders were allegedly hindering local traders in the informal sector of the country’s economy. Now, the group is focusing on the healthcare sector, and has threatened that, next year, it would “go to schools which foreigners, including Nigerians, attend to stop them from attending public schools,” Nwobi said. The group also threatened to go to other sectors.
It is commendable that NUSA is fighting back using a legal approach. This demonstrates the union’s respect for the law. Having resolved to “seek legal intervention for those affected, including Nigerians,” the union is collaborating with the Office of the Human Rights for Refugee Affairs and the Office of the African Diaspora Forum, in South Africa.
In addition to seeking a solution to the issue through collaboration with some progressive bodies, the union has “written to the Nigerian Consulate to reach out to their South African counterpart on the matter.”
Strangely, this effort to get the Nigerian diplomatic representatives in South Africa to intervene in the matter did not yield the desired official action. Nwobi said: “The consulate and the embassy have not intervened. We tried to reach out to them, but they have not said anything; they have not given us any progress report about what they are doing so far.”
It is unclear why the Nigerian diplomatic representatives apparently failed to respond to the communication from NUSA. Officially, they have a responsibility to ensure that Nigerians in South Africa are protected from lawless attacks, such as the ones from “Operation Dudula.”
Historically, Nigerians have faced xenophobic attacks in South Africa since 1998. Notably, in 2019, South African rioters destroyed many Nigerian businesses in their country. This incident provoked some youths in Nigeria who attacked South African businesses, including MTN and Shoprite supermarkets. In the wake of the Nigerian attacks, South Africa had shut down its High Commission in Nigeria, and recalled its High Commissioner; it also boycotted the World Economic Forum held in Nigeria. More than 120 Nigerians have been killed in South Africa, since 2019, in circumstances suggesting local hostility, according to reports.
Importantly, NUSA called on President Bola Tinubu to “kindly intervene” in the latest case of anti-migrant actions targeting Nigerians, among others. According to Nwobi, he is expected to attend the 2025 G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November. This would be a concrete opportunity for the President to address the issue directly with the South African government on a major international stage.
However, the Nigerian government and its diplomatic representatives in South Africa need not wait for the event before intervening in the situation, which demands an urgent intervention.
Ultimately, the South African authorities have a duty to enforce the laws of their country and prevent some xenophobic actors from acting in ways that suggest they are above the law.
