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Xenophobic attitudes and actions are all-pervasive in South Africa in civil society and the state. Medical xenophobia refers to the negative attitudes and practices of health professionals and employees towards migrants and refugees based purely on their identity as non-South African. This paper examines the extent to which xenophobia manifests itself within the public institutions that offer health services to citizens and non-citizens, based on primary research with Zimbabwean migrants who try to access the system. The paper argues that medical xenophobia is deeply entrenched in the South African public health system despite being a fundamental breach of the country's Constitution and Bill of Rights, international human rights obligations and the existence of professional codes of ethics governing the treatment of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much of the contemporary literature on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa has focused on the rural sector, with limited attention to urban areas whose inhabitants are equally vulnerable. Thus, little is known about how poor households deal with food insecurity under conditions of economic adversity and material deprivation in the urban environment. This article examines the strategies that poor urban households adopt to enhance their resilience in the face of food insecurity. Study results indicate that the resilience of poor urban households to food insecurity during a crisis situation such as that besetting Harare depends largely on 3 main factors: first, the resourcefulness of households in eking out a living through multiple income-generating activities; second, the existence of strong social links to rural households, which increases access to rural resources for urban survival; and third, the use of international remittances to increase household food security. In conclusion, the article argues that in a crisis situation such as that in Zimbabwe, survival largely depends on the ability of households to engage in multiple as well as multispatial activities that not only increase income sources but also reduce household expenses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]