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A South African court has ordered an anti-migrant group to stop blocking foreign nationals from accessing public health facilities and schools, saying such actions are illegal.<\/p>\n
Operation Dudula has in recent months picketed hospitals and clinics in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, checking identity cards and stopping anyone who is not South African from entering. This has since extended to schools.<\/p>\n
But the high court in Johannesburg has ordered the group to stop “intimidating, harassing [or] interfering with access” to these facilities.<\/p>\n
South Africa is home to about 2.4 million migrants, just less than 4% of the population, according to official figures.<\/p>\n
Most come from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which have a history of providing migrant labour to their wealthy neighbour.<\/p>\n
Xenophobia has long been an issue in South Africa, which has been accompanied by occasional outbursts of deadly violence, and anti-migrant sentiment has become a key political talking-point.<\/p>\n
Judge Leicester Adams, handing down judgment on Tuesday, also barred Operation Dudula from making statements that can be construed as hate speech, “unlawfully evicting foreign nationals from their homes… [or] from their trading stalls” and instigating others to do so.<\/p>\n
“Dudula” means to remove something by force in the Zulu language.<\/p>\n
The organisation says it is disappointed by the ruling and intends to appeal against it, according to South African online publication News24.<\/p>\n