Programme Details

VENUE: DEMOCRACY

Dialogue | Date: 28 March 2026 | Time: 15h00 | Presented by: SECTION27

Nationality vs. Necessity: Who Gets Treated?

Health xenophobia and the right to healthcare

A robust discussion on the impact of health xenophobia for affected communities and the functioning of our health system. The discussion will cover the legal obligations of the state, the efforts expanded by civil society groups to keep the health system running and the true cost of health xenophobia in a country where the right to access healthcare services is constitutionally protected.
SECTION27 is a human rights organisation that seeks to achieve substantive equality and social justice in South Africa. Guided by the principles and values in the Constitution, SECTION27 uses law, advocacy, legal literacy, research and community mobilisation to advance socio-economic rights, in particular the right to access health care services and the right to basic education as guaranteed in section 27 and section 29 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa respectively.

SECTION27 aims to achieve systemic change and accountability to ensure the dignity and equality of everyone.

Khuselwa Dyantji

Khuselwa Dyantji is a health rights attorney at SECTION27 with more than a decade of experience in public interest law, specialising in socio-economic rights and constitutional litigation. She works across litigation, advocacy, and policy reform to advance access to healthcare, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health rights, and the rights of marginalised communities.

Sharon Ekambaram

Sharon Ekambaram is the Programme Manager at Lawyers for Human Rights and a founding member of Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia. A long-standing activist, she has worked across refugee and migrant rights, public health, advocacy, and social justice, including senior roles at Médecins Sans Frontières and the Treatment Action Campaign.

Claire Waterhouse

Claire Waterhouse is the Director of the ERAA Department for MSF Southern Africa and MSF Ubuntu. Since joining MSF in 2014, she has worked across projects in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and previously worked with the MSF Access Campaign. She holds a Master’s in Human Rights Law from SOAS, University of London.

Anele Yawa

Anele Yawa is the General Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign and a long-standing South African human rights activist. Since joining TAC in 2002, he has spent more than two decades advancing the rights of people living with HIV and now also serves as Chief Accounting Officer of the Ritshidze Project.