A protest against foreign patients by Operation Dudula Movement outside the Kalafong hospital in Tshwane turned into a slap fest when the EFF stepped in.
The Fighters, as EFF members are known, arrived at the hospital around 11am and wasted no time showing irritation against Dudula members who had arrived three hours earlier to continue their campaign against foreign patients at the hospital.
Dudula, who started picketing at the hospital for some weeks now, stood their ground as the Red Berets started singing protest songs. Tension was thick in the air as the two groups competed for the spotlight near the facility's gates.
A clash was finally in the making when the EFF members started singing and dancing closer to where Dudula members had camped. Within a few seconds slaps started flying and members of Dudula had to take cover at a nearby tuck shop across the hospital.
One person from Dudula suffered injuries to the face after taking a jab from a Fighter.
Less than 50 metres away, police stood and watched as the two sides battled it out with no intervention. Lack of police intervention has been the order of the proceedings at the Kalafong entrance, even after the court interdict ordering the Dudula members to end their protest was issued.
Addressing a crowd after the confrontation, EFF's provincial spokesperson Phillip Makwala said the party would not sit back and allow human rights to be violated.
“The EFF does not meet guns with flowers. Police are clearly afraid. There is a court order here that says these people must be dispersed, but police are watching and not doing anything. They (Dudula) think they are bigger than the police, they are bigger than everyone. They are untouchable, so the EFF must match them toe-to-toe,” he said.
“Operation Dudula are not immigration officials, they are not law enforcement; why are they asking our people questions about where they come from? It is none of their business. We will be here to make sure that our people get the services they need.
Singing voetsek Dudula voetsek, some members of the EFF insisted that was the only way to protect people from what they said was the intimidation by Dudula
Operation Dudula greater Tshwane regional coordinator Elias Makgwadi said they would continue with their protest and that the court order made no mention of them dispersing.
“According to section 17 we are allowed to picket and it is a peaceful protest. Our agreement with the police captain leading this operation is that they are not going to force us to disperse because that is not what our interdict states,” he said.
“We will not prevent anyone from going inside, but we will continue to picket every day until we go to court on October 10.”
Makgwadi said since the operation began they have had feedback from staff members who told them that the work pressure had reduced as the queues were shorter.
One staff member working for the hospital pharmacy appeared to be in agreement with the Dudula as she joined the group saying they were helping them. “You are doing well. People do not know what we are going through. Since you guys started I no longer knock off at 7pm, I am able to leave at 4pm and be with my family because the queue is not as long as it was.”
Meanwhile, Dudula members of the Johannesburg region protested for a few hours outside the Hillbrow Community Health Centre yesterday dressed in camouflage and carrying sjamboks. They sang Struggle songs outside the clinic as they called for illegal immigrants to “go back to your countries”.
Their regional leader, Siphiwe Shabangu, said: “We are here to picket against illegal immigrants from using our facilities. We are not preventing anyone from entering. We are just making a call that South Africans should be serviced first.”
Police were in the area monitoring the situation.
Secretary-general of the movement Zandile Dabula said their members were staging similar pickets at King Edward VIII Hospital in Umbilo, KwaZulu-Natal, as well as in Polokwane, Seshego and Mankweng hospitals in Limpopo; and Odi Hospital and Hebron Clinic in the North West.
The situation remained calm at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic and Bheki Mlangeni hospitals in Soweto.
sibiyan@sowetan.co.za
kokam@sowetan.co.za
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