By: Kholofelo Mphahlele and Gillian Pillay
Sunday, 15 June 2025 started off as another normal day for the Moyo* family. It is also a day that will forever remain etched in their memory.
The Moyos, who reside in Springs, Gauteng, vividly recalled how their world forever changed after a devastating phone call from Pholosong Hospital, in the province’s East Rand, which shattered their sense of reality.
The news that their younger brother, Nyasha*, a Zimbabwean national working in Johannesburg, was involved in a motor vehicle accident and had sustained serious injuries, left the family feeling powerless.
41-year-old Nyasha, who is also a father of two children, has worked in South Africa under the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) since 2013. The income he made from driving trucks he sent home to feed his wife and children.
On 22 June 2025, Nyasha succumbed to his injuries – this after multiple surgeries and a month-long hospital stay at Pholosong Hospital.
In the wake of his passing, the Moyo family’s grief quickly gave way to shock when the hospital refused to release Nyasha’s body. This after the Moyos were informed by the facility’s finance department that an amount of R 217 000 was still outstanding for Nyasha’s hospitalisation, and until it was settled, his body would remain in the facility’s mortuary.
Overwhelmed by grief and limited resources, the Moyo family turned to SECTION27 for urgent intervention on 24 June 2025, after finding the organisation through an internet search. Advice office paralegal, Kholofelo Mphahlele, and health rights attorney, Asiphe Funda, assisted the family. After several back-and-forth emails with Pholosong Hospital officials, the matter was escalated to the CEO.
Section 27(1)(a) of South Africa’s Constitution upholds that everyone has a right to access healthcare services, regardless of their immigration status. Regulation 8 of the Uniform Patient Fee Schedule (UPFS) under the National Health Act 61 of 2003, the Revised Patient Administration and Revenue Management Policy, states that documented patients like Nyasha cannot be classified as full-paying private patients and are entitled to a means test – an assessment of the patient’s income used to determine if they qualify for free or subsidised healthcare.
SECTION27 has been advocating for migrant and refugee health rights, submitting to the government that documented migrants from the Southern African Development Community are entitled to means-tested fee determinations and should not be denied services. According to this policy, Pholosong Hospital incorrectly classified Nyasha as a full-paying patient and resorted to withholding his body due to unpaid medical fees; a constitutional right which the hospital had violated.
Following a marathon of calls between SECTION27 and the hospital officials, management finally relented. On the 26 June 2024, the CEO contacted the Moyo family, including SECTION27, and granted authorisation for the release of Nyasha’s body.
The paperwork required for repatriation of a body usually includes the burial order, notice of death, death certificate, embalming certificate, non-infectious disease letter, and a permit to repatriate from the Department of Home Affairs. A clearance letter is also required that can be obtained from the Zimbabwean consulate which the Moyo family obtained as ZEP holders. With the assistance of a local Zimbabwean funeral parlour, the paperwork was processed, and the Moyos were finally able to take their loved one home.
On 29 June 2025, after a week in the Pholosong Hospital mortuary, Nyasha was repatriated.
According to the Moyos’ burial custom, death is considered a transition, not an end. Therefore, Nyasha needed to be afforded a proper and respectful burial to facilitate his soul’s peaceful transition. He also needed to be laid to rest in his birth country of Zimbabwe where his forefathers are buried.
At Beitbridge, the border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe, following their traumatic ordeal, Nyasha’s family accompanied his coffin, feeling the weight lifted – not of grief, but of justice in being able to return their beloved brother home and bury him in their ancestral village of Buhera in Zimbabwe, as per their family’s tradition.
*Not their real names.
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