4. Access to health services A major concern of the authors is whether Zimbabweans in South Africa are able to access health services, in particular whether torture victims with health complications are able to do so. Our findings indicate that it is not easy for Zimbabweans to access health care in Johannesburg, and this matter needs to be addressed urgently.150 Some anecdotal experiences relating to health care are given here, followed by a summary of findings based on a health questionnaire. Asylum seekers in Hillbrow The group of 26 political exiles we visited in their apartment151 had as one of their main concerns, lack of access to medical support. Several had had falanga in prison in Zimbabwe (beatings to the soles of the feet) and had feet that ached as a result. Falanga typically leaves injuries to the connective tissue of feet and lower legs, and permanent pain. Some complained of pain from other torture related injuries. All should be receiving regular physiotherapy and have access to painkillers, at the very least. This group recounted an occasion on which they had been donated used cooking oil and had all become very ill with food poisoning as a result of cooking with it. All 25 of them had had simultaneous diarrhoea and vomiting, without access to medication of any kind, in a tiny apartment with one toilet. As most of them are illegal, and as none of them had any money, they had not been able to go to a clinic for medical attention. At one stage they took quinine because it was the only medication in the apartment and they were so desperate. Community of the blind The same blind man who told us he had been imprisoned for selling “MDC sugar”, told us that when his wife was ill recently, he went with her to a local clinic, where he said he was Zimbabwean and asked for help for his wife. The nurse shouted at them, saying that “Mugabe’s people” should go back to Mugabe’s country and not ask her for help. He later managed to get medical help from another clinic for his wife. Musina: access to health care Unaccompanied minors in Musina reported to CPC that they had formed their own support networks in order to avoid deportation. They mentioned that they do not go to the clinic for fear that the nurse will report them to the police: instead, they club together and buy medicine when one of them is ill. In other words, they are not accessing appropriate medical care. Among the sex workers we interviewed there, one reported that her child aged two was not getting immunisations because she was afraid to take her to the clinic in case she was deported, but two others with children were taking them to the local baby clinic without problems. 150 151 It seems to be easier to get health care in Musina than in Johannesburg. This is the same group described previously in this report in the section Johannesburg: political exiles. 64