High court bans Dudula from blocking access to hospitals, clinics and schools

In a judgment that was just over four months in the making, the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg has interdicted the anti-migrant group Operation Dudula from barring access to healthcare facilities or schools to any foreign national in South Africa.

The case began two years ago, in 2023, when Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (Kaax), the South African Informal Traders Forum, the Inner City Federation, and Abahlali baseMjondolo, represented by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute, filed the legal challenge.

The Department of Home Affairs and the South African Police Service (SAPS) were added as respondents in the application for failing to protect vulnerable communities from Operation Dudula’s xenophobic conduct and, in some instances, for allegedly colluding with or supporting the group’s activities.

The landmark judgment came after Operation Dudula, which is registered as a political party and has its sights on the 2026 local government election, embarked on a sustained campaign to block foreign nationals from accessing hospitals and clinics and recently announced plans to do the same outside schools.

On Tuesday, 4 November, Judge Leicester Adams made it unequivocally clear that Operation Dudula’s harassment, intimidation and assault of migrants was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Over and above interdicting Operation Dudula, the judgment also compelled several arms of the government to enforce the ruling, thereby protecting the constitutionally enshrined rights of migrants.

Speaking to Daily Maverick on behalf of Kaax, Dale McKinley described the ruling as a clear affirmation of constitutional rights and a rebuke of vigilante action.

“This is huge because it affirms not only the constitutional human right that we’ve been arguing for, but it also puts paid to these arguments that an organisation like Operation Dudula can replace the state and has the power to do these vigilante things,” he said.

If effectively enforced, the ruling means that foreign nationals can no longer be barred from accessing clinics, hospitals or schools. Children and parents can no longer be harassed in classrooms, and communities can no longer be subjected to raids, evictions or public humiliation orchestrated by Dudula and other, smaller anti-migrant groups.

McKinley told Daily Maverick that enforcement of the interdict may be a challenge.

“We have seen before that the government has ignored certain court orders, turned a blind eye to them or not implemented them efficiently, citing lack of resources and all kinds of dubious arguments. We know that Operation Dudula doesn’t really care about the law, except for when it is useful for them,” said McKinley.

Daily Maverick asked the SAPS about its plans to enforce the interdict against Dudula, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Read more: Legal bid to protect migrants dismissed while Operation Dudula’s campaign intensifies

Civil society vows to monitor enforcement

McKinley stressed the importance of defending the court order beyond the courtroom.

“Our expectations are that this is going to have to be consistently monitored, this is going to have to be consistently pushed. We’re going to have to put pressure to make sure that SAPS, the Department of Health and Department of Education, and particularly when it comes to access, do their job, enforce the law and do not turn a blind eye to these things,” he said.

To ensure that Operation Dudula does, in fact, stop blocking access to education, healthcare and other fundamental services, McKinley said Kaax would band together with other organisations to ensure the interdict is enforced.

McKinley said that teams from his organisation, as well as Doctors Without Borders, SECTION27, Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African Human Rights Commission and the Treatment Action Campaign were being mobilised to visit clinics and schools to ensure compliance. However, he acknowledged that the civil society organisations were limited in their financial resources.

“We need parents, we need citizens, we need others to report if Operation Dudula pitches up or if the police don’t do their job. We need citizen monitoring to help us and ensure the order is followed, because it’s in everyone’s interest.

“If we ignore this, we set a dangerous precedent. Our law begins to mean nothing when the powerful or vigilante groups don’t adhere to it. This goes beyond one case — it’s about upholding constitutional rights and the integrity of legal injunctions,” he said.

Appeal pending

Two days after Judge Adams handed down the landmark judgment, Operation Dudula held a media briefing in Johannesburg on Thursday, 6 November, where the anti-migrant group’s leader, Zandile Dabula, revealed that her organisation would appeal against the sweeping interdict.

“We have instructed our legal team to launch an appeal on this judgment to protect the interests of South African citizens and the rule of law,” Dabula said.

She said the interdict attacked all Operation Dudula’s “activities and programmes”, effectively ringing the death knell for the anti-migrant group.

The group said that if they had been given the “opportunity” to represent themselves when the application was heard in June this year, the interdict would not have been granted.

Daily Maverick has reported that Operation Dudula did not oppose the application because the group failed to file an answering affidavit to the court, despite being served with papers two years previously.

Speaking to Daily Maverick, Asenati Tukela, an attorney at Seri, said that even though the application went unopposed by the anti-migrant group, they were fully within their rights to appeal against Judge Adams’ decision.

“Anyone is entitled to that as long as the judgment relates to them. But before they appeal, they must first file for leave to appeal before they can go forward with the appeal process,” said Tukela.

McKinley said that while the group was within its rights to appeal against the interdict, it was attempting to “rewrite history” after it had ignored court processes during the initial case.

“They were served papers, given months to respond, and simply told the court to ‘piss off'. This wasn’t a technical issue – it was a conscious decision to disregard the legal process,” he said.

He argued the group’s claims of procedural unfairness were false and that the evidence clearly showed they had acted unlawfully under South African law.

According to McKinley, Dudula’s attempt to frame its activities as a fight against illegality is “deeply ironic”.

“They claim to uphold the law, yet the court has found their actions to be illegal – harassing and demanding documents from foreign nationals,” McKinley said. 

“They’re running scared and trying to get back through the back door, but their legal grounds are weak and the facts speak for themselves,” he said.

In the meantime, Dabula said that the group’s leadership would comply with the interdict for now, in addition to instructing its members to cease blocking access to hospitals and clinics.

“But when it comes to private citizens, we have no control there. We cannot stop them from going out themselves and continuing the action. We cannot be held responsible for those actions,” Dabula said. DM

This article was updated on 6 November to reflect Operation Dudula’s reaction to the interdict.