Operation Dudula and EFF feud escalates following child's death due to denied access at Alexandra Clinic
Operation Dudula has opened a case of intimidation against the EFF.
Image: File
The standoff between Operation Dudula and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has escalated, with both groups trading accusations after the death of a one-year-old child who was allegedly denied treatment at the Alexandra Community Health Centre in Gauteng.
Last week, the EFF announced it had opened a murder case against Operation Dudula and its leader, Zandile Dabula, accusing the movement of being responsible for the child’s death after his Malawian mother was allegedly asked to produce a South African identity document before receiving care.
Dabula has rejected the claim, insisting no such case exists, and has now laid charges of her own against the EFF.
She said: “Only law enforcers can open a case of murder. In this case, they were turned away. They went out there and labelled me as a murderer and lied to the community that they had opened a case against me.”
She confirmed that Operation Dudula had filed charges of intimidation, assault by threat, and criminal defamation under the Cybercrime Act.
Dabula maintained that the police confirmed that no docket had been registered against her. “If there was a case, I would have been contacted within 48 hours. We checked ourselves at Alexandra, and there is definitely no case,” she said.
However, the EFF disputed Dudula’s version of events. Gauteng EFF spokesperson Dumisani Baleni said the party had been in direct contact with both the police and the child’s mother at the time the complaint was lodged.
“It is untrue that we were turned away by the police, because we have evidence of our engagement with them. The police said they needed to speak to the victim to get proper facts before they open the case. Up to this point, they have not given us a case number,” Baleni added.
Baleni said the mother, a Malawian national, had reported receiving threats and was too afraid to speak publicly.
“We are convinced that Operation Dudula caused the death of this child. Beyond this case, we need to stop people from making public clinics a home affairs post where immigration is checked. That has severe and dire effects, people with communicable diseases will be turned away and return to their communities untreated,” he said.
The EFF dismissed Dudula’s counter-case as baseless. “Opening a case with the police is not intimidation. It is just us trying to enforce the law in South Africa and ensure people respect the constitution. We cannot tolerate vigilante groups reviving apartheid-style ideas,” Baleni said.