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Catholic Church in Southern Africa Denounces Attacks against Migrants Seeking Treatment in Public Hospitals

Agnes Aineah

By Agnes Aineah

Johannesburg, 13 July, 2025 / 8:45 pm (ACI Africa).

Members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) have denounced xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals in some parts of South Africa, where locals have reportedly been protesting against treatment of undocumented migrants in public hospitals in the country.

In their Thursday, July 10 statement, SACBC members describe the move to exclude foreign nationals in South Africa from health care as “morally reprehensible” behaviour that they say risks undermining the country’s attempts to strengthen social cohesion. 

“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,” members of the three-nation Conference that brings together Catholic Bishops in Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa say in the statement that their President, Stephen Cardinal Brislin, signed.

They lament, “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.”

SACBC members says that “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.”

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Recent protests, notably in Johannesburg’s Rosettenville suburb, have seen locals establish barricades demanding that undocumented migrants seek private medical care.

For weeks, residents of Rosettenville have also been reportedly calling for the deportation of illegal immigrants in South Africa, saying that they want South Africans to be prioritised for state services. 

In the SACBC statement, the Catholic Church leaders express concern that the people behind the xenophobic attacks are inciting hate speech, spreading a culture of violence, 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,” they say in the statement that the Local Ordinary of Johannesburg Catholic Archdiocese signed.  

SACBC members add, “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 in Matthew 5:7, and it is one of the traditional Corporal Works of Mercy.”

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“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,” they say.

In their July 10 statement, the SACBC members call on those behind the xenophobic attacks to be brought to justice, and for political parties in South Africa to refrain from statements that, according to them, “stoke the fires of social instability.”

“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,” Catholic Bishops in Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa say in their one-page statement titled, “Xenophobic Attacks against Those Seeking Health Care”.

Agnes Aineah

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.

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