Several determined residents of Atteridgeville in Tshwane have vowed to continue preventing foreigners from accessing government health facilities in their area.
In an exclusive interview with Tshwane Talks this week at the local clinic known as Gazankulu, the residents expressed satisfaction that no foreigners had dared to set foot at the clinic for several weeks now since they embarked on a campaign to prevent them from using the clinic a few months ago.
The enthusiastic residents told Tshwane Talks that they wake up in the wee hours of every morning to monitor the situation at all health facilities in Atteridgeville and prevent foreigners from accessing the said facilities.
“Every morning we check the IDs of patients who want to access the health facilities to make sure that they are not foreigners,” said one of the vigilant residents Elias Makgwadi.
“We have five clinics in Atteridgeville and all of them can’t be used by foreigners at the moment because we have stopped them (foreigners) from using them,” enthused Makgwadi.
“We are using Section 17 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa to gather here and protest, and we are also using the letter and spirit of Section 24 to prevent our health facilities from collapsing, while also using the Immigration Act to discourage the influx of illegal foreigners into the country; hence we are stopping them from wrongfully using our health facilities,” said Makgwadi.
“Enough is enough; we have had enough with these people who come from outside to destroy our health facilities because they are practically stealing our medication; this as they are not supposed to be at any public health facilities in the first place,” he said.
“We are going to defend our public health facilities with our blood and with our lives,” warned Makgwadi.
He emphasised that illegal foreigners are not welcomed in South Africa.
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