Johannesburg – The Department of Health could bleed millions of rand as dozens of HIV-positive women who were forcibly sterilised are turning to courts for a class action suit against the state.
The women are being helped by the EFF and Her Rights Initiative. EFF MP Veronica Mente has been helping the organisation fight for justice for a few years. For Women’s Month, the party is also running social media campaigns allowing women who were forcibly sterilised to tell their stories to draw attention to their plight.
Earlier this year, the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) released a report that confirmed complaints brought to it in 2015 that some public hospitals coerced and forced 48 women to be sterilised because they were living with HIV. This was a gross violation of women’s rights, the CGE concluded.
“The complainants were subjected to cruel, torturous or inhuman and degrading treatment,” the CGE report said.
The commission’s investigators visited 15 hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng for the probe. These hospitals included Tembisa, Tambo Memorial in Boksburg, Prince Mshiyeni in uMlazi, Addington in Durban and Lower Umfolozi in Empangeni.
The report recommended the department facilitate a dialogue with the women but this has not happened. It was also recommended that time frames be put in place for when a patient can be told about sterilisation as an option.
“Patients cannot be informed about this process minutes before going to theatre. Patients must also be informed that they are at liberty to change their minds at any time before the procedure takes place,” the report said.
The department had three months to respond to the report but missed the deadline.
On Tuesday, CGE spokesperson Javu Baloyi said: “There has been a meeting between the CGE and the department where an agreement was made based on the outcome of that meeting, the recommendations will be responded to by August 21.”
Health Department spokesperson Popo Maja said the women had never opened criminal cases and that they should provide their hospital files to prove their claims.
Her Rights Initiative’s Zandile December said since the report had been released in February, there had been silence from the department.
“The forced sterilisations are a human rights violation. We have been engaging with the department for years and nothing has come of it.”
December said forced sterilisations should not only be seen as human rights violations but also gender-based violence. “It seems like no one cares about black women. I wish that there were at least two whites in the class action and maybe we would be taken seriously,” she said.
December said while the CGE report addressed what happened to 48 women, it was trying to find more to join the class action.
“We are tracing the women right now. Some of the ones in the report have passed away. We are also trying to get into contact with more women.”
Mente said the forcibly sterilised women approached the EFF in 2018 while still waiting for the CGE report.
“They were complaining that when they go to hospitals, they don’t receive help on their gynaecological problems. When the report was released, we were also relieved and that they will start attending to them.
“We feel we are undermined and that is when we took a resolution we should start preparing for a class action. No one is taking this seriously because the people who are affected are black and mainly poor women. These women now not only have to live with the stigma of being HIV-positive but also of not being able to have children.”
Mente said the EFF’s advocate, Dali Mpofu, and Godrich Gardee are assisting with the case.
“We first want to deal with the CGE report in Parliament.”
Women who are interested in joining the class action can email [email protected] or call December at 062 062 7257.
The Star