Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health has raised alarm over the disruption of health services by Operation Dudula and similar groups, warning that their actions threaten constitutional rights and risk denying legitimate patients access to treatment.

Speaking during a social services cluster media briefing on Thursday, committee chairperson Sibongiseni Dhlomo said that while citizens’ concerns about pressure on clinics and hospitals must be acknowledged, “blocking patients at the gates of hospitals is not the solution”.

He noted that the Constitution guaranteed access to emergency medical care for all, regardless of nationality, and cautioned that undocumented South Africans such as those who lost identity documents in shack fires were also at risk of being unfairly targeted.

“The absence of a document should not allow anyone to be blocked from accessing healthcare,” Dhlomo said, urging Operation Dudula activists to abandon vigilante tactics. 

He confirmed that discussions with the Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and civil society groups were underway to address grievances about strained resources and long queues at facilities.

Dhlomo also said legislative reforms may be necessary to tighten existing laws, including the Citizenship Act of 1993, the Refugees Act of 1998 and the Immigration Act, to balance humanitarian obligations with South Africa’s limited resources.

He emphasised that only pregnant women and children under six currently qualify for free primary healthcare, while most South Africans must either pay at state hospitals or wait for the phased rollout of the National Health Insurance (NHI).

Chairperson of the Select Committee on Education, Sciences and Creative Industries, Makhi Feni, added that while the government would continue engaging with concerned civil society groups, law enforcement must intervene if health facilities were obstructed. 

“Those disrupting hospitals cannot be allowed to disadvantage even legitimate citizens. If dialogue fails, decisive action will be taken,” he said.

The warning comes after incidents in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal where Dudula-linked activists confronted foreign nationals at clinics. 

On Thursday, the acting chairperson of the Southern Africa Refugee Organisations Forum, Eric Jean Butoki Madel, echoed the warnings from government, reportedly saying that if “you are not a native South African, you are automatically illegal, especially if you are a Black African.”

Dhlomo urged communities to work with Home Affairs, which has begun placing offices in hospitals to register births and issue certificates, to reduce tensions around documentation.

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The Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) has played down the recent arrests of over 400 illegal miners at the Sheba Mine in Barberton as performative justice, saying that the real masterminds were left to roam free whilst the focus iwas on poor Black workers trying to make a living for themselves.

 MACUA spokesperson Tholakele Thabane said on Tuesday that the arrests captured the real picture of the ongoing failure by the South African law enforcement agencies to confront the real architecture of illegal mining.

“Over 400 arrests have taken place this last week alone. As has become the norm, those arrested are overwhelmingly poor Black workers, many of them migrants, forced into informal mining by economic desperation and exclusion from the formal economy,” he said.

“These arrests are presented as victories, with police parading mining tools, shovels and makeshift explosives as evidence of ‘progress’ in the fight against syndicates.”

This comes after a police-led raid through Operation Vala Mgodi was conducted at the Barberton mine on Friday, where the illegal miners were smoked out and subsequently taken to custody by the Mpumalanga police officials.

According to reports, the majority of them were undocumented foreign nationals.

Thabane alleges that the mass arrests were a smokescreen to create an illusion of law enforcement while presenting no substantial solution to the problem. Illegal mining syndicate used the poor to facilitate it, and the rich financed it under protection by the powerful.

“But let us be clear: after nearly three years of Operation Vala Umgodi, launch in December 2022, no high-level syndicate bosses have been arrested, no corporate directors have been charged, and no elite political or financial figures have been held accountable,” Thabane added.

“Hundreds of millions of rands have been spent, and all the state has to show for it are the bodies of almost 100 miners who they starved to death and images of shackled miners, not the dismantling of syndicates.”

Macua is demanding Parliamentary hearings where it will be invited to present its full submission in the presence of the media and civil society.

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Another group of Ethiopian nationals, who were locked up in a house, has been found in Johannesburg.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo confirmed that 44 people, including 17 minors, were found by private security guards at a house in Sandton on Thursday morning.

Fow now they were being treated as illegal immigrants, he said.

In April, police found 50 Ethiopians who escaped from a house in Lombardy East and in January,15 other Ethiopians were rescued by authorities in Sandringham.

Masondo said the guards heard people screaming from the house in Parkmore.

“They got into the house and found these people who couldn’t speak English then they called the police… they were locked in two rooms,” he told reporters.

He said it was unclear how they arrived in the country and how long they been held at the house. They may have been looking for work.

The owner of the house has not yet been located.

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The Employment and Labour Department has reiterated that businesses must hire South Africans following a sting operation that saw the arrest of illegal immigrants in KwZulu-Natal.

A tolal of 64 people, mostly from Lesotho, were apprehended the iSithembe industrial area of Mandeni.

They were arrested for violating labour laws and immigration regulations, together with their employer. 

The operation was led by Employment and Labour Minister Deputy Minister Jomo Sibiya and Home Affairs Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza this week. It was aimed at cracking down on illegal foreign nationals and lawlessness in the country. 

Three sections of factories have been shut down and all nine companies raided were found to be breaking the law.

Sibiya emphasised the importance of compliance with South African laws, saying “available jobs should be prioritised for South Africans and those who have valid documents.” 

He also expressed concern about employers exploiting undocumented foreign nationals by paying them low wages.

Mlungisi Zondi, who is the chief inspector of the Employment and Labour Department, said employers had 14 days to comply with compliance notices and 60 days to comply with occupational health and safety prohibition notices, failing which they would face prosecution.

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The Home Affairs Department continues to increase the number of illegal immigrants deported out of the country, with figures tripling over the last five years.

A total of 46,898 people were deported for the 2024/25 financial year, which is an 18% increase compared to the previous year.

“This marked increase in the effectiveness of enforcement operations demonstrates our commitment to upholding the rule of law,” said Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber.

“It also flows from improved collaboration between the Department of Home Affairs, the Border Management Authority, the South African Police Service and local law enforcement. It further reflects the impact of joint initiatives like Operation Vala Umgodi.”

The department said the deportations for the previous year exceeded the number of deportations conducted by France (22,000) and Germany (20,000) over the same period.

The total number of deportations for the past five years are as follows:

• 2020/21: 14,859
• 2021/22: 20,093
• 2022/23: 22,560
• 2023/24: 39,672
• 2024/25: 46,898

“The fact that Home Affairs now performs more than double the number of deportations conducted in a country like France, which has the highest rate of deportations in the European Union, sends a clear message to offenders that the days of impunity are over,” the minister said.

This improved performance, coupled with the department’s digital transformation reforms that would automate entry-and-exit to prevent people from entering the country illegally through the ports of entry, was contributing to enhanced national security and trade facilitation, he said.

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Crime in Gauteng dropped by 6.5% in the last quarter last year, with the police provincial police commissioner Tommy Mthombeni saying this downward trend was due to joint efforts between SAPS and law enforcement agencies.

“The downward trajectory of the province’s crime statistics we are witnessing now makes us hopeful. Hopeful that we are moving in the right direction,” Mthombeni said in a statement.

He said to improve service delivery, the police and ministerial cooperation agreement shared resources to address safety and security concerns.

However, he noted that Gauteng remained the hardest-hit province, contributing 26.5% to the country’s overall crime stats for the quarter.

Contact crimes saw a 4.7% decrease, with 48,929 cases recorded between October and December, compared to 51,327 in the same period in 2023.

Murder dropped by 2.5%, from 1787 cases to 1741.

However, attempted murder rose by 2.4% to 1820 cases, and common assault increased by 670 cases, bringing the total to 14,970.

A total of 34,910 suspects were nabbed for various crimes, including 10,960 of illegal immigrants.

Six drug laboratories were shut down.

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Almost 60,000 illegal immigrants were stopped from trying to enter South Africa during the festive season.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said this was an increase of over 200% from the previous period.

He was speaking during a briefing with Border Management Authority commissioner Michael Masipato on the 2024/25 festive season report.

SA has managed to stop and deport a total of 468,000 individuals who attempted to enter South Africa illegally since 2022.

The BMA, which significantly ramped up operations over the holidays, said the number of movement recorded between 6 December and 18 January was still less than the pre-Covid number of about six million travellers.

“The BMA facilitated the legitimate movement of about 5,084,251 travellers across our 71 ports of entry in this festive period. This number represents an increase of 51, 680 travellers compared to the 2023/2024 festive period,” Masipato confirmed.

OR Tambo International Airport facilitated a highest number of travellers at 1,065,636, followed by Beitbridge to Zimbabwe at 645,590 and Lebombo to Mozambique at 571,131 travellers.

He also highlighted that Lebombo experienced a decline of about 183,935 travellers due to the disruptions linked to post-Mozambique violence.

Schreiber spoke about deploying more guards to the borders.

“We still have a long way to go to ensure that our ports are efficiently, securely and digitally controlled. It is my desire to see more funding for the BMA so that we can employ more personnel and technology to secure and manage our border,” he said.

A total of 331 vehicles were stopped from being smuggled out of South Africa.

Masipato emphasised that their role was also to protect the country’s agriculture from any threat.

“Our biosecurity experts managed to intercept and seize a number of unauthorised consignments of infested beans, infested wheat, nuts, termites, infested rice, spirogyra algae, soil samples, herbs, unvaccinated poultry, dairy products and tortoises.”

He advised travellers to avoid bringing alien invasive species as well as foreign pests, animals and their products into the country.

The BMA’s team of health specialists screened about 1,746,560 travellers for various infectious and or communicable diseases, which was an increase from 1,497,480.

At Beit Bridge border port, 759 travellers were tested for malaria, and 40 positive cases were detected. The BMA said it has put measures in place to sustain intensified border operations and consolidate border management functions going into Easter period.

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The brutal conditions facing illegal miners at Stilfontein in the North West have been revealed in an affidavit released by the Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) on Friday.

It has supplemented its application to the Constitutional Court to bring to its attention the increasing urgency regarding the rescue of the miners.

Macua wants the court to hear an urgent application to compel the government to provide humanitarian aid to save their lives. Scores have already died underground, with advocacy groups warning that the situation is beyond crisis levels.

Macua spokesperson Magnificent Mndebele said that following the destruction of a community rescue operations pulley system, under the supervision of the police, no further community rescue operations and food drops could be made.

“Macua has had to supplement its application at the Constitutional Court to bring to the court’s attention the escalation of the degree of urgency in the matter.

“In the supplementary information provided to the court, we also included a more recent detailed account of the harrowing and desperate circumstances prevailing underground. The account of the horrendous conditions underground was provided by Clement Moeletsi and corroborated by other survivors who also recently surfaced,” he said in a statement.

Moeletsi was retrieved from Shaft 11 by the Stilfontein community rescue team on 9 December.

Macua said the SA Police Service resorted to a range of unconstitutional measures to deny him access to his legal representatives from Lawyers for Human Rights.

He was eventually released on R500 bail by the Stilfontein Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

According to Moeletsi’s affidavit, his lack of access to his lawyers severely impeded his ability to communicate and provide critical information. However, now that he was out on bail, he was able to give a full account of the situation at Stilfontein.

He entered Shaft 10 in July last year using the rope system. This system, operated manually by “artisanal miners”, required coordination and physical effort to lower individuals into the shaft.

He said that miners relied on the support of others, including community members, to send food, medicine and other essential supplies. But when the police implemented its Operation Vala Umgodi in August, the supplies were completely cut off.

“This abrupt termination of supplies left us utterly blindsided, as we had no warning or explanation for why the provision of food, water, medication and other basic supplies had suddenly stopped.

“Around September 2024, desperation for sustenance reached unimaginable levels. People began eating cockroaches and mixing toothpaste with salt to create makeshift meals, extreme measures born out of sheer deprivation.

“The lack of food and safe drinking water left us with no viable means of nourishment,” the affidavit reads.

From September through to October, the absence of even “basic sustenance was absolute”. Moeletsi went without food or potable water for nearly six weeks.

The prolonged starvation left him physically and mentally drained, and he resorted to drinking toxic underground water, which resulted in severe headaches, abdominal pain, and what he suspects are symptoms of stomach ulcers.

Moeletsi said that the impact of the police operation has been devastating, with many dying due to starvation.

“These were preventable deaths, caused not by natural circumstances but by human decisions. This is what I saw underground, people wasting away, their bodies betraying them in slow, agonising defeat. Hunger stripped them of their strength, turning once vibrant individuals into fragile shadows of themselves.

“At first, there were the pangs of hunger, sharp, and relentless. People held on, trying to ignore the gnawing emptiness inside them. Their faces grew thinner, their eyes sunken.

“As days turned to weeks without food, their movements became sluggish, as if every step was an unbearable effort. The fat that once cushioned their frames disappeared, leaving their bones painfully visible beneath thinning skin. Faces hollowed out, and limbs looked impossibly frail.

“With nothing else to sustain them, their bodies started feeding on their own muscles. Arms that once could dig or carry now trembled under the weight of even the smallest task,” the affidavit reads.

On 13 November, news spread underground that food would be available at Shaft 11. But to get there, the journey was treacherous.

Not everyone chose or was able to take the same path. Some, in their desperation to escape or resurface, turned to the ligaters, which is a single metal rod extending from the deepest part of the mine to the surface above.

The rod was rusted and ill-suited for the weight of humans. But despite the danger, many attempted the climb.

“Tragically, the ligaters became a death trap. Most who tried to scale it fell, their weakened bodies unable to withstand the exertion or maintain their grip on the slippery, corroded surface.

“Those who fell plummeted to the very bottom of the mine, a place so remote and dangerous that recovery was nearly impossible without specialised equipment.”

Moeletsi said it was due to sheer luck that miners had survived.

Mndebele told Inside Politics that there was no date yet for the Constitutional Court application.

The Stilfontein crisis has left South Africa divided over the humane treatment of the illegal miners, who some Cabinet ministers have said should not be helped as they are “criminals”.

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Advocacy groups, led by Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua), have escalated relief efforts for the trapped miners at Stilfontein to the Constitutional Court.

They want the court to compel the government to provide urgent humanitarian aid to save lives.

Macua spokesperson Magnificent Mndebele said on Monday that the crisis at the abandoned mine in the North West had reached a critical juncture, with hundreds of illegal miners trapped underground and scores already dead.

“With the application, we are hoping for an urgent date as the situation is of urgency and every second wasted puts the trapped miners’ lives at further risk,” Mndebele said.

Macua’s decision to approach the Constitutional Court follows the Gauteng High Court’s dismissal of its application earlier in the month. The court ruled that humanitarian aid could be provided by social movements, charities and community members, but absolved the state of responsibility.

Mndebele described this ruling as a “miscarriage of justice” that shielded the state from its constitutional obligations to protect lives.

“In our view, Honourable Madam Justice Mazibuko, with respect, erred in her decision which has the effects of shielding the state from taking the responsibility to sustain the lives of the trapped miners, who, without food, will continue to die,” he said.

Reports from underground paint a grim picture, including starvation and miners who have died from injuries. The death toll rises with each passing day.

Mndebele emphasised that the state’s failure to act has exacerbated the crisis.

The organisation’s application calls for immediate humanitarian aid, including food, water and medication, to be delivered to the miners within two hours of the court’s judgment.

Additionally, it is demanding the initiation of a rescue operation at shafts 10 and 11 and weekly progress updates from state agencies and the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine.

The South African Police Service’s Operation Vala Umgodi, which is aimed at curbing illegal mining throughout the country, has come under heavy criticism.

While the government maintains that exit points have been established to allow the miners to resurface safely, Macua accuses the SAPS of mismanaging the situation.

“SAPS has misinterpreted its mandate. Their actions prioritise law enforcement over preserving life, resulting in gross negligence and constitutional violations,” he said.

Over the past week, 47 miners resurfaced at the shafts. They have been arrested for illegal mining, trespassing and violating the Immigration Act.

On Sunday, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure defended the government’s approach, claiming that evidence suggested that the miners had access to supplies until recently.

It also denied claims that police actions were trapping the miners, and noted the logistical challenges of rescuing the miners, as they were 2km underground.

However, Macua disputes these claims and accuses the police of spreading misinformation through select media outlets.

It has called on the South African National Editors’ Forum to investigate alleged bias and collusion in reporting.

Mndebele said Macua’s application hinged on the state’s constitutional duty to uphold the right to life and provide disaster management relief.

It also argues that the Mineral Department’s failure to secure the mine and the police’s mishandling of Operation Vala Umgodi has created the conditions for the current crisis.

Additionally, Macua criticises the Social Development Department for its inaction in providing social assistance.

Mndebele warned that every delay increased the death toll.

“Macua wishes to once again emphasise the fact that the more the state is allowed to shirk its constitutional obligations in rescuing the trapped miners, the more people will die,” said Mndebele.

He said that with the apex court’s involvement, the organisation hoped to set a precedent for state accountability in addressing crises involving marginalised communities.

Macua remains resolute in its fight to protect the human rights of the trapped miners and ensure that all responsible parties are held accountable.

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The police’s Vala Umgodi task teams in the North West have blocked the routes used to deliver food and water to illegal miners, with 225 of them, dehydrated and starving, having now resurfaced in the Orkney area where there are gold mines.

Operation Vala Umgodi, which was launched in December last year, is a multi-disciplinary South African police operation that aims to stop illegal mining and related crimes.

Thousands of people have been arrested since its inception, with the operation exposing a connection between illegal migration and the coercion of migrants in South African mines.

Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya commended the Vala Umgodi task teams over the weekend.

“These 225 illegal miners are part of others believed to be hundreds if not a thousand illegal miners who are stuck underground with no food, water and necessities because the Vala Umgodi teams led by the SAPS and SANDF are blocking routes used to deliver food and necessities to these illegal miners, he said in a statement.

Sibiya said Operation Vala Umgodi was yielding positive results across the country.

“We are closely monitoring the situation that is unfolding in the North West province, we are not backing down until all those illegal miners resurface and are arrested,” he said.

Since its launch, the operation was seen 13,691 suspects nabbed in seven provinces, which all have illegal mining hotspots.

Sibiya said that R5 million in cash and uncut diamonds worth R32 million have also been seized.

The majority of those arrested this weekend are South African, Mozambican, and Lesotho nationals.

Last week, 39 people were arrested near Kimberly for violating South African immigration laws.

Authorities hailed it as a success in combating illegal immigration and the exploitation of labour in unregistered mining operations.

The operation followed weeks of intelligence gathering.

The week before, six people were apprehended for illegal mining on the Free State Another raid earlier in the week, saw five people arrested in Limpopo and the police seizing large amounts of equipment used for extracting minerals and gemstones.

The police believe that powerful and well-organised groups are involved in the illegal mining. The operation forms part of the country’s greater efforts to stamp out extortion and get a grip on organised crime.

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