SACBC Statement on Xenophobic Blockade of Access to Healthcare

by SACBC · July 11, 2025

Photo: Daily Maverick

SACBC statement on Xenophobic Attacks Against Those Seeking Health Care

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? (1 John 3:17)

We, the Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa, are deeply disturbed by the recent upsurge in xenophobic activity around health facilities in many parts of the country. The frightening evidence of all sorts of abuse by groups calling for foreign nationals to be excluded from health care is morally reprehensible, in direct contradiction to the Constitution, and undermines our every attempt to strengthen social cohesion.

In a time when we are seeking to find our way forward to real unity as a country through National Dialogue, this descent into the politics of divisiveness and exclusion cannot be sanctioned and cannot be allowed to separate us further.

Those bent on such behaviour use, and are inciting hate speech, spreading a culture of violent xenophobic actions, and acting against the spirit of Ubuntu. Exclusion is a violation of human dignity, and we remind them forcefully that the Constitution, various Ministerial Directives, and Court rulings provide for basic healthcare for all irrespective of status.

From our faith perspective, we state categorically that care for the sick is one of the core tenets of our faith, as evidenced by the Sermon on the Mount (Mt.5:7), and it is one of the traditional Corporal Works of Mercy. We therefore assert our role as custodians of these values in the public domain and reaffirm our unambiguous stand against activities that deprive the poor, the vulnerable, those on the margins, and people on the move of their basic rights.

We are quite clear that those who perpetrate such actions and foment such ideologies must be brought to justice. By the same token, we call on political parties to be responsible in their public narratives and to refrain from all statements that stoke the fires of social instability any further.

We urge the Government, the National Police Service, and all law enforcement agencies to protect the vulnerable and those persecuted, as well as to leave no stone unturned in rooting out this scourge of xenophobia.

Cardinal Stephen Brislin
President – Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference