Prof Karim fights lawlessness at hospital gates

WORLD-renowned scientist Prof Salim Abdool Karim has slammed police inaction at Durban’s Addington Hospital, calling it “lawlessness” after witnessing vigilantes illegally block foreign nationals from accessing medical care, in full view of officers. 

Thirty-five years ago, as a member of the UDF, he protested against apartheid outside the very same hospital, where medical care was officially segregated by race. At the time, hundreds of protesters gathered as part of rolling mass action, with non-white patients standing in line for care at what was then mainly a whites-only hospital.

This week Abdool Karim returned, to confront self-appointed immigration enforcers who were stopping people at the hospital gate, and turning away documented and undocumented foreigners. Even South Africans without their IDs were turned away.

“These are individuals who have taken the law into their own hands and who have been actually given that ability to do that by the police who deliberately did not arrest them,” he said.

Abdool Karim said the police were doing exactly what they did during the 2021 insurrection in which more than 300 people died.

“They just stand by and let illegal activity occur in front of them and they don't arrest anyone. In fact, there was a police van nearby,” he said.

For the past two months, organisations under the banner of March and March have played gatekeeper at Addington, deciding who may enter the hospital and who should be turned away. The group has carried out similar actions at other facilities, including in Gauteng. 

Abdool Karim said the vigilantes confirmed that they worked in shifts to ensure 24-hour surveillance at Addington and to prevent anyone without a South African ID from entering, even at night.

“So that's the extent they have gone to. I would not be surprised if these people are being paid to come and do this,” he said.

He questioned why the authorities had allowed this to happen.

“The police are saying, you can do whatever you want to here, and that's what struck me: that the impotence of our police to actually protect the rights of people trying to enter the hospital is a complete failure. And it's in a way symbolic of the failure to ensure that we don't deteriorate to lawlessness, which we saw during the insurrection… there's just an inability to insist that people follow the laws.”

Abdool Karim visited the hospital with Dr Raymond Perrier, director of the Denis Hurley Centre. The two confronted the group at the gate, who claimed they had the authority to make a citizen’s arrest and were enforcing the country’s immigration laws.

“What struck me was that they were highly organised. Even though I confronted them, they never flinched. I would describe them as zealots, but they didn't take any bait in terms of reacting or responding or anything.”

At one point, Abdool Karim attempted to help a woman walk into the facility without showing her ID, but the group had already asked for it, and she had willingly handed it over.

“When patients arrive at the gate, they don't know who these people are, but they look officious enough because they've got badges on them. And as far as they know, these people are part of the hospital, so when they get asked for the ID, they just take it out and they show it and they walk in. They're not seeing it as some kind of threat to them.”

He made it clear that access to emergency medical care is a legal right, and that pregnant women and children under six must be treated without restriction. Beyond that, treatment for undocumented individuals depends on available resources, he said. 

“There is no country I know where a foreigner can come in and get free health care. They get health care, but it's not free,” he said, noting that even in the UK, foreigners are treated, but must pay. "So it should be the same in our country as it is everywhere else. You get your care, but you pay.

But decisions about who gets treated, should be made by the government, not self-appointed enforcers, he said.

“What they're doing is illegal. What they're doing is actually breaching people's privacy. In fact, I was a bit worried. I would not show my ID to anybody just standing on the street at the entrance. I mean, that's a recipe for ID fraud. So this whole thing is unacceptable. It should never be allowed at all. It's got nothing to do with what our country's health care system is and what foreigners have a right to. That's for our health care system to deal with.”

“These people have got no business doing what they're doing at all. Period. It's not a debatable issue in my view.”

He said the government must act decisively and humanely, according to the Constitution and the law.

“Our government needs to sort out how it wants to deal with foreigners. It needs to deal with them in a humane way, and it's guided by the laws and by the Constitution and so on. If they just follow those things, I don't have any problem with that.”

While he is set to travel to Japan next week, Abdool Karim said he and other civil society members were planning to continue monitoring and challenging the illegal actions of the gatekeepers.

“If anyone got turned away, I would make it my job to work with that person and get them into that hospital. They would have to physically beat me up or beat that patient up to keep us out. I hope it doesn't come to that.”

He believes the only reason they didn’t turn violent during his visit was because they were being filmed. “They were smarter than that.”

Reflecting on the broader issue, he said:

“It’s deeply ironic and painful that in a democratic South Africa we've created a new separation between people who are South African and those who are not.”

Meanwhile, Perrier told the Independent on Saturday that he and Abdool Karim were also asked to show their IDs when they arrived at Addington Hospital,  but refused, and instead asked the vigilantes to produce theirs.

“The protesters were saying that Karim and I didn't have a right to demand to see their IDs… They said, ‘Well, if what we're doing is illegal, how is it we haven't been arrested yet?’” said Perrier.

“And that's exactly the question we’re asking the Minister of Police, because what they are doing is illegal. And the fact that the police have not acted for six weeks is very telling.”

He said the Denis Hurley Centre, along with other civil society groups, is working on a legal submission with Lawyers for Human Rights.

“What that will do is ask the court to bring an injunction against the police, to require them to act, because the police are obviously negligent in carrying out their mandated duties.”

​Meanwhile, Foster Mohale, the spokesman for the National Department of Health said, "We condemn any protest actions which interfere with the provision of healthcare services because that is tantamount to violation of  section 27​ of the Constitution and the National Health Act. We ca​ll upon the law enforcement agencies to take action against those who undermine the laws of the country. Protest actions is not the solution to societal problems, hence we urge those with concerns to raise them through the legal channels​." 

Attempts to get comment from the police were unsuccessful.