By: Thembi Mahlathi and Hloni Manare
Any person living with HIV understands the importance of daily medication.
For Nyasha*, a 35-year-old woman from Zimbabwe and living in South Africa for over a decade, access to lifesaving antiretroviral (ARV) medication was not just a matter of routine but also survival.
Nyasha was diagnosed with HIV over a decade ago, and has been receiving treatment at Yeoville Clinic in central Johannesburg since 2021. She is also a mother to a three-month-old baby girl named Amanda*, born in South Africa in April 2025.
Since birth, baby Amanda has been prescribed Nevirapine, a critical ARV medication that helps prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV during breastfeeding. Without this medication, Nyasha’s baby girl faces a significantly increased risk of contracting the virus.
On 24 July 2025, when baby Amanda was running out of Nevirapine, Nyasha approached Yeoville Clinic to get medication for her baby but was allegedly told by members of a vigilante group known for their anti-migrant sentiment that, because she and her baby are not South African citizens, she could not seek healthcare assistance for her baby.
Trying to plead with the conscience of those obstructing access to healthcare for her baby, Nyasha explained that the medication was for her three-month old daughter, but despite this she was dismissed and told to seek care at a private hospital, an option she could not afford.
South Africa’s Constitution and the National Health Act guarantee the right to access to healthcare services for all. The Constitution declares that the state must take reasonable legislative measures within its available resources – including policy development, funding and oversight – to realise this right. Relevant here is section 4(3)(b) of the National Health Act which provides that primary health services, such as those offered at clinics, are free of charge and must be offered to everyone irrespective of nationality and documentation status.
Often, this right is undermined by seemingly discriminatory attitudes towards foreign nationals who live in South Africa and who seek primary healthcare services.
From 31 July, Nyasha anxiously watched as her own supply of antiretroviral (ARV) medication dwindled.
Determined to get assistance, she returned to the Yeoville clinic, but was turned away again.
When her baby’s medication finally ran out, Nyasha returned to the clinic – desperate and afraid not only for her own health, but for the health of her baby.
What should have been a place of care became one of fear, as she was turned away for a third time.
At her wits end and desperate for help, Nyasha reached out to SECTION27, through a referral from Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), and consulted with paralegal, Thembi Mahlathi, who intervened in the matter.
Earlier in July 2025, SECTION27 started receiving complaints that patients without South African ID documents were being denied access to healthcare facilities in Yeoville and Rosettenville by vigilante groups. This prompted SECTION27 and partner organisations to begin monitoring the situation throughout August 2025 by visiting these facilities to capture any evidence of the denial of healthcare services.
In November 2025, SECTION27 represented Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX) and filed an urgent application at the South Gauteng High Court against several government departments, including the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH). The application sought immediate intervention to end the obstruction that left vulnerable patients unable to access essential primary healthcare services.
Nyasha’s harrowing ordeal was documented in SECTION27’s court papers among countless testimonies of other affected people. This, while urgent steps were taken to secure treatment for her and her baby.
During this time, SECTION27 worked alongside a medical practitioner at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital who specialises in preventing mother-to-child transmission to ensure that babies like Amanda receive the immediate necessary, life-saving medication. SECTION27 also engaged partner organisations, TAC and MSF, to help Nyasha in accessing her own ARV treatment.
Although baby Amanda was eventually able to receive her required medication, Nyasha’s struggle was still far from over.
When an HIV positive person does not take their medication, the virus can intensify and weaken their immune system. This increases the risk of transmission, leading to illness and later death.
In December 2025, the South Gauteng High Court found that the state must take immediate and decisive action to end the obstruction of access to public healthcare facilities in Gauteng.
On 17 February 2026, Nyasha was advised by Ms. Mahlathi to return to the clinic.
After months of being denied primary healthcare, Nyasha was finally able to resume her ARV treatment.
Nyasha’s story is not an isolated case. Her situation reflects a broader pattern of exclusion, discrimination, and systemic failure within South Africa’s healthcare system. Despite constitutional protections, migrants are too often denied their right to lifesaving healthcare.
Through litigation, SECTION27 was able to secure the right to access healthcare services for Nyasha and many others in her predicament, and compel the state to ensure that these rights are upheld and protected. As the only public interest litigation organisation in South Africa that focuses on the right to access healthcare services, SECTION27, together with its partners in the health sector, plays a critical role in holding the government accountable to its constitutional duties.
The law is clear: in South Africa, everyone has the right to access essential healthcare, regardless of their nationality or documentation status. And until this right is upheld in practice, the most vulnerable will continue to pay the price.
*Not their real names
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