Operation Dudula primed to overtake parties in denial
Operation Dudula is set to swell its ranks by the millions as political parties and well-meaning analysts seek to deny the problem of illegal migrants in SA accessing scarce resources such as health care.
As insincere as the statements of the health MEC for Limpopo are about foreign nationals clogging up clinics and hospitals, millions of South African households buy into this.
Explanations by political analysts and health-care professionals about the dysfunctional public health-care system as the real cause of the problem are not heard where they matter the most. In fact, these statements are easily manipulated as an attempt to defend illegal foreign nationals who (try to) access health care at the expense of South Africans.
Paradoxically, the health MEC of Limpopo should be awarded honorary status by Operation Dudula, whose central message is sort of a quasi-conspiracy theory.
The appeal of many conspiracy theories is that they purport to explain complex phenomena in a simple way that is appealing to short attention spans. So, for example, all the problems of poverty, crime and poor service delivery in SA can be simply packaged as being the result of illegal foreign nationals.
The appeal of this message is that it is simple and contains a grain of truth. As the economy of Zimbabwe implodes a veritable tsunami of its poor and destitute flood into SA.
Sitting in the comfort of suburbia, analysts may technically understand what poverty is but do not know hunger, cold, heat and crime as it is felt in a tin shack on an unlit street. In these conditions, how easy is it to see foreign nationals as an invasion of your space and taking away what little you have?
If developed countries around the world are battling with the burden of illegal migrants and the rise of right-wing nationalism, what is the strain on a nearbankrupt SA?
Seemingly harsh decisions are needed, but ignoring this issue legitimises rightwing activism and xenophobia.
Professor Kurt Sartorius, Wits University