It has been 18 months at the helm of one of South Africa's toughest cabinet portfolios and already Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has endured a disgruntled doctors' strike, a crippling public sector work stoppage, the untimely death of his deputy minister and complex debates on a National Health Insurance initiative, which is really the critical transformation of the health system.
However, Motsoaledi is proving to be a survivor and a tactician who is determined to turn the health sector around, one health worker at a time, one patient at a time, one clinic at a time, one hospital at a time. Motsoaledi was handed a state health system in April last year which had been neglected for years on the watch of Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her Director General Thami Mseleku.
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