EFF files murder case against Operation Dudula, SAPS in Gauteng investigating
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Gauteng has opened a criminal case against the Operation Dudula movement, accusing the militant group of inciting violence and unlawfully targeting foreign nationals in South Africa.
On Sunday, Gauteng police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo confirmed to IOL that investigations are underway.
“Police have opened an inquiry docket for investigation. Once the investigation is complete, the docket will be taken to the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) for a decision,” said Masondo.
On Saturday, EFF Gauteng chairperson Nkululeko Dunga led supporters to the Alexandra Police Station, where the case was opened against Operation Dudula. According to the Julius Malema-led party, the case relates to the death of a one-year-old baby who was allegedly denied access to healthcare at a public health facility.
Reports indicate that the child’s mother, Malawian national Grace Banda, said she and her baby were turned away from the Alexandra Community Health Centre in July. She alleged that members of Operation Dudula blocked her from entering, insisting she could only access the premises after producing a South African identity document. The sick child later died.
Dunga told journalists that the child’s death amounted to murder. “If someone gets sick, and someone dies, and if they could be assisted there and there, it is not only negligence, they knew exactly what they were doing, and they eliminated a life of a one-year-old.
“So, we have opened a case of murder. It is up to the State to pick up and do the necessary investigations. In our minds, someone has passed on and that is a murder case.”
The traumatised child’s mother, according to Dunga, is now living in fear. The EFF further claims that several South Africans have also been denied access to healthcare facilities in Gauteng after being presumed to be foreign nationals.
Operation Dudula has frequently clashed with political parties, human rights groups, and foreign governments over its campaigns to remove undocumented migrants from communities, workplaces, and public services. Leaders of the movement argue they are not against all foreign nationals, but specifically undocumented migrants.
Earlier this month, IOL reported that Operation Dudula and Zimbabwe’s ruling party Zanu PF clashed in a war of words after the latter condemned Dudula’s stance on foreign nationals accessing healthcare in South Africa.
Operation Dudula leader Zandile Dabula told IOL that South Africa would not be dictated to by outsiders and dismissed Zanu PF’s criticism. “We will not be dictated to by foreigners on how to run our country. We have the Constitution that is supposed to be guiding us, we have immigration laws that we use as guiding documents,” said Dabula.
Her comments were in response to Zanu PF’s director of information, Farai Marapira, who told IOL that Operation Dudula’s campaign against undocumented migrants was “a betrayal of Ubuntu” and a continuation of colonial-era tactics of dividing Africans.
But Dabula fired back, calling his remarks baseless. “For Farai (Marapira) to talk about these unfounded allegations, that we are funded by former colonisers, that is definitely not true. How are we going to be funded by the very same people who we are working against?” she said.
“They should focus on fixing their country, Zimbabwe. It is the very same former colonisers they chased away in their country, hence they are in problems. They are sitting with land, and they are doing nothing about it. That is why the very same Zimbabweans are fleeing to South Africa, to take up our spaces, not just in South Africa but they are all over the world seeking better life.”
Dabula further insisted that Zimbabweans were in South Africa in far greater numbers than official estimates suggested, accusing them of placing pressure on jobs, schools, and public services. “He also spoke about us having one million Zimbabweans in this country. That’s a lie. There is way more than that. There are millions of Zimbabweans in this country. We are on the ground. We see them, we know where they work, their own businesses, they are in our schools,” she said.
On the issue of healthcare, Dabula clarified that Operation Dudula was not calling for a blanket denial of treatment to all migrants, but for foreign nationals to pay for the services they use. “We are not saying they shouldn’t get medical treatment, we are saying they should go to public facilities and pay for it, or rather go to private facilities because these people are working – that is what they always claim,” Dabula told IOL.
Marapira had argued earlier that healthcare was a universal human right. Dabula, however, turned her fire on Zanu PF’s governance in Zimbabwe and its close ties with the ANC, warning that South Africa risked going down the same path. “Zanu-PF is a problem to the people of Zimbabwe. They have been voted out, but they are still continuing to bully people. Their relationship with the ANC is very problematic to us as South Africans because we can see that we are heading to the state where Zimbabwe is at currently,” Dabula said.
Operation Dudula, she stressed, is committed to prioritising South Africans, ensuring that foreigners comply with immigration laws and contribute to the services they use.
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
IOL News