Experts warn scapegoating migrants for failing services misses the point

South African experts say blaming undocumented migrants for the failures of public services is misplaced, even as questions remain about how changes in patient patterns affect clinic workloads.

Experts urge caution before assigning blame

Associate professor Jo Vearey, co-director of the African Centre for Migration and Society at Wits University, warned against singling out migrants as the cause of the country’s healthcare problems. “It would be premature to attribute these trends to any single factor until a detailed analysis of the data has been completed,” she said, and cautioned that “the narrative that undocumented migrants are to blame for all failures of the state to deliver on what they should be delivering…is scapegoating migrants.”

Where queues eased, experts point to location and access changes

Vearey noted that clinics with long queues were largely in the city centre, where most foreigners were based, and said that after Operation Dudula denied foreigners access to clinics, many opted for other options.

Local reporting finds migrants avoiding public clinics

According to The Citizen, research in clinics around Ivory Park and Kaalfontein near Midrand found that documented and undocumented migrants were no longer attending public healthcare centres because they were denied access in violation of United Nations’ stipulations. The Citizen reported that a foreign national interviewed was instead going to local pharmacies and cheap private clinics.

The Citizen also quoted a nurse who asked to remain anonymous:

“We used to have long queues, but that stopped after some activists started to demand that patients produce identity documents before entering the facility. Since then everything has been going well.”

The Citizen quoted an elderly patient from Kaalfontein Clinic:

“When I started taking medication, there was chaos but now the service is good.”

Health department is consolidating facility data

The Gauteng department of health said it was consolidating data from about 300 public health facilities and was not yet able to provide a full assessment of the impact of foreigners’ repatriation on patient volumes. A department spokesperson, Steve Mabona, said preliminary reports from facilities in the Johannesburg and Tshwane district health services indicated a decrease in patient volumes at some facilities during 26 to 29 June and 30 June to 3 July.

What this means

Experts and officials emphasise the need for detailed data analysis before drawing firm conclusions about causes of strain on healthcare services. Local reporting shows changes in who is using public clinics after access restrictions were enforced, but authorities are still consolidating facility-level data to measure the fuller impact.