Vulnerable groups forced to skip medication

Members of the LGBTQI+ community and sex workers have told of the ill-treatment they suffer under public health officials.

They said they are denied medication for chronic diseases and are also judged and insulted whenever they go to public health facilities.

Their experiences at public health facilities are confirmed by a report released by Ritshidze, an NGO focusing on the rights of some of the marginalised groups of people such as drug users, sex workers and LGBQT+ community.

The report states that of the more than 13,000 it interviewed, 35% of transgender people, 33% of gays and bisexual people, 26% of sex workers and 17% of people who use drugs confirmed they were discriminated against.

A 35-year-old unemployed queer man from Vosloorus in Ekurhuleni said he had now changed the clinic he used to collect chronic medication from because of the treatment he received there. He had been collecting his medication from the clinic since 2019.

He said he started noticing they were treating him harshly only because he is queer and would also deny him "simple things such as lubricants".

“For peace and to be treated with dignity, I now catch a taxi  to Germiston, which costs R40 per single trip, to fetch my medication. Even last week l used my last money to go to Germiston where people don't know me," he said.

Meanwhile, Xolela Mabudla, 25, from the Eastern Cape told Sowetan that it has been two months since he last collected his medication as he fears being insulted again.

Mabudla said two months ago he arrived a few days late at Cacadu clinic for his medication as he had been working. He said after 20 minutes at the reception, a nurse asked what did he want.

"I told her [I was there to collect my medication]. The nurse shouted at me and said I should go and stand outside. She called me an idiot and istabane (gay). I was very angry," he said.

For Gomotsegang Mhlongo, 29, from Pretoria North, it all started five years ago when he started to disclose to the nurse that he liked men. 

"She started asking weird questions and from those questions you could hear that she is judgmental. I thought it was only in Temba [Hammanskraal area] where we were discriminated against but when I got here three years ago I was undermined. l am still undermined even now and honestly I have learnt to live with it. It does not stress me anymore," Mhlongo said.

Ritshidze senior researcher James Oladipo said the results show that more people were hesitant to fetch their medication out of fear of the treatment the staff gives them at health facilities.

"Our research is conducted through community-led monitoring, which means we go on the ground. We do it every year and next week we will once again go on the ground to collect raw data, analyse it and draft solutions and hand them over to the department of health.

"This year we recommended that the department should have centres of excellence facilities where key populations will be treated and the facilities should have well-trained staff members because we have been experiencing this challenge for years now. The discrimination start from the security," he said

Oladipo said he was disappointed that things seem to be getting worse.

“I don’t think we will reach a point where all people in the country know their status if they continue to treat other people this way. If they continue to deny medication such as PrEP to other patients, how will we stop the spread of HIV?” he asked.

He also called on the department of health to make sure that health workers who discriminate against others be punished.

According to South African Human Rights Commission, Mpumalanga is one of the provinces where there is a widespread prejudice against the LGBTQI+ community.

The commission has warned that discrimination can lead to psychological stress and low self-esteem.