Ali Burundi,a 58-year-old living in Durban, is facing a life-threatening struggle. Living with both TB and HIV, he’s received his medication consistently from Gateway Clinic at Addington Hospital since 2019.
But for the past two months, he has been unable to access treatment due to blockades by a group known as March-and-March, a collective that describes itself as a “citizen-led movement tackling illegal immigration’s impact on SA”.
“I’ve always been able to go to the clinic and get my medicine. Now, since Dudula started, there’s no more medicine. Every time I go to the clinic, they fight me, and I run away,” says Burundi, referring to Operation Dudula – another anti-migrant group that has also been denying international migrants access to government health facilities.
Originally from Burundi, Ali has lived in South Africa for 20 years as an asylum seeker. He works as a barber, cutting hair for a living, which means he interacts closely with many people every day.
“It’s harder for me to work because I’m afraid I could infect someone with TB, but I have to work to eat,” he says. “It’s even harder when you are a foreigner in South Africa. I have legal papers, and I was granted asylum, yet I am still being denied access to my medication. That puts me and everyone around me at risk.”
Sharing ARVS
Seeing his desperate situation, one neighbour took pity on Burundi and decided to share her HIV medication with him.
“It broke my heart to hear him cry because he couldn’t get his treatment, as we know how important the medication is,” says the 69-year-old woman who asked not to be named. She explains that she had received a three-month supply of antiretroviral drugs.
“I lost one of my children to HIV years ago, so it brought back painful memories, which is why I cannot let him suffer like that. I pray the government can resolve this soon.”
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KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health, Nomagugu Simelane, expressed deep concern over the situation.
“It hurts us that this so-called March-and-March group is abusing people by preventing them from exercising their rights to medication, simply because they are foreign nationals,” she told Health-e News.
The MEC is calling for urgent intervention to protect patients and uphold their healthcare rights, saying “we are trying to resolve this issue soon”. – Health-e News
