The City of Joburg has called on national government to urgently act on the influx of undocumented patients visiting their clinics.
The City conducted a study in 66 of its 81 clinics and found that close to 40 percent of the patients don’t have valid identity documents.
The City also found that the number of undocumented patients increased from 32 000 to 83 000 in the last two years.
Mayoral spokesperson Luyanda Mfeka also says some of the medicine obtained by these undocumented patients is used in the illicit drug trade.
“It’s very difficult to check whether one person accesses one facility or another and part of these medicines are thought to end up is either within the black market trade in one form or another, we are saying as the city so long as we cannot regulate who comes in the facility and utilising resources therein there is always a chance that those resources end up in the wrong hands.”
