However, the country has stressed that this should not be used as grounds to deny people access to emergency healthcare.<\/p>\n
Jessie Majome, Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC), said while Zimbabweans abroad remain the responsibility of their host country in terms of services, their fundamental rights must still be protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many Zimbabweans in SA under different legal categories, some are asylum seekers, others are documented workers or permanent residents,\u201d she said. \u201cRegardless of their status, emergency healthcare should not be withheld purely because they are foreign nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her comments come in the wake of confirmation from SA\u2019s Public Protector that no formal complaints have been received from the ZHRC regarding Zimbabweans being denied access to public health facilities.<\/p>\n
Majome acknowledged that discussions between the two commissions on this issue have been ongoing, especially as South Africa continues to grapple with the strain on public services caused by rising migration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe absence of official complaints doesn\u2019t mean these matters don\u2019t exist. We\u2019ve had conversations in the past around the pressure on service delivery in SA,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we must safeguard, above all, is the right to dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The debate over access to public healthcare by foreign nationals remains a contentious issue in SA, with some policymakers calling for tighter restrictions amid resource constraints.<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12641,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-12640","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zimbabwe has made it clear that it will not assume the responsibility of paying medical expenses for its nationals living in South Africa (SA). \u00a0||Zimbabwe has made it clear that it will not assume the responsibility of paying medical expenses for its nationals living in South Africa (SA). \u00a0","published_date":"2025-05-20 00:00:00||2025-05-20 00:00:00","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18150,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12640\/revisions\/18150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}