Published: 6 hours ago

Operation Dudula leader Zandile Dabula has come out swinging against Zimbabwe's ruling party, Zanu-PF, after it condemned the movement's stance on foreign nationals accessing healthcare in South Africa.

In an interview with IOL News, Dabula said South Africa would not be dictated to by outsiders and rubbished Zanu-PF's claims that Operation Dudula was promoting colonial-era divisions.

"We will not be dictated to by foreigners on how to run our country. We have the Constitution that is supposed to be guiding us, we have immigration laws that we use as guiding documents," Dabula said.

Her comments came in response to Zanu-PF's director of information, Farai Marapira, who earlier told IOL that Operation Dudula's campaign against undocumented migrants was "a betrayal of Ubuntu" and a continuation of colonial-era tactics of dividing Africans.

Marapira argued that Africans could not be called foreigners on their own continent, stressing that borders were imposed during colonialism.

But Dabula fired back, calling his remarks baseless.

"For Farai (Marapira) to talk about these unfounded allegations, that we are funded by former colonisers, that is definitely not true. How are we going to be funded by the very same people who we are working against?" she said.

"They should focus on fixing their country, Zimbabwe. It is the very same former colonisers they chased away in their country, hence they are in problems. They are sitting with land, and they are doing nothing about it. That is why the very same Zimbabweans are fleeing to South Africa, to take up our spaces, not just in South Africa but they are all over the world seeking better life."

Dabula insisted that Zimbabweans were in South Africa in far greater numbers than official estimates suggested, accusing them of putting pressure on jobs, schools, and public services.

"He also spoke about us having one million Zimbabweans in this country. That's a lie. There is way more than that. There are millions of Zimbabweans in this country. We are on the ground. We see them, we know where they work, their own businesses, they are in our schools," she said.

On healthcare, Dabula clarified that Operation Dudula was not calling for a blanket denial of treatment to all migrants, but for foreign nationals to pay for the healthcare services.

"We are not saying they shouldn't get medical treatment, we are saying they should go to public facilities and pay for it, or rather go to private facilities because these people are working – that is what they always claim," Dabula told IOL.

Marapira had earlier argued that healthcare was a universal human right. But Dabula turned her fire on Zanu-PF's governance in Zimbabwe and its close ties with the ANC, warning that South Africa risked going down the same path.

"Zanu-PF is a problem to the people of Zimbabwe. They have been voted out, but they are still continuing to bully people. Their relationship with the ANC is very problematic to us as South Africans because we can see that we are heading to the state where Zimbabwe is at currently," Dabula said.

Operation Dudula, she stressed, is committed to prioritising South Africans, ensuring that foreigners comply with immigration laws and contribute to the services they use.

Dabula added that her movement is urging Zimbabweans to form their own version of Operation Dudula in Zimbabwe to fight Zanu PF.

"We will help them," she insisted.
- iol

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