Organisations such as Collective Voices are fighting to ensure foreign nationals have access to medication.

The NGO Collective Voices for Health Access launched a civil society consensus statement on "Access to Healthcare for All in South Africa" and an educational booklet on "Your Right to HealthCare in South Africa" on 9 December.

This comes after foreign nationals were reportedly charged for chronic medication at Gauteng clinics, while some were denied medication.

At the launch, Marlise Richter, a member of Collective Voices for Health Access, played an audio of Flora (not her real name), who lives in Johannesburg and is struggling to access healthcare at her local clinic because she is a foreign national.

Flora has been in South Africa since 2013. In 2019, she tested HIV-positive and started taking ARV medication.

On 29 October, Flora went to her usual clinic to receive her medication, but was not assisted after Operation Dudula members asked her to produce a South African identity document, which she was unable to do.

In the second week of November, Flora returned to the clinic to try to get her medication, and the same Operation Dudula members barred her access.

She explained that she had been coming to the clinic since 2019, but they still refused to allow her in.

Flora said...