Lindi Chauke can now breathe a sigh of relief after a landmark court ruling in Gauteng guaranteed free healthcare for all foreign mothers.

In the ruling which was passed on Friday, the Johannesburg High Court upheld the right of all pregnant and lactating women, regardless of nationality and documentation status, to access free health services at public health establishments in Gauteng.

Lindi, a 29-year-old from Mozambique, gave birth to her daughter in February at Mamelodi Day Hospital but couldn't leave until a neighbour promised to pay the R1,000 she owed for the medical care.

Fearing debt collectors, Lindi had not been to a health facility since.

With this court decision, her worries are a thing of the past.

"Now my daughter won't miss any vaccination," she said.

Social workers and NGOs had urged them not to be afraid of visiting the hospital.

Lindi is unemployed. She was abandoned by her baby's father who left her for his wife in Mozambique.

"I didn't even know he had a wife," she said.

The case was brought by the NGO, Section 27, and two other women who were denied free health services while pregnant. In 2020, Gauteng's department of health introduced policies and regulations which denied free health care services to pregnant and lactating women, and young children who are asylum seekers, undocumented, or stateless persons.

The court declared these policies unlawful.

The province's Department of Health must now amend its policy by 16 October 2023.