South Africa: 'The Law Is Clear': Sasha Stevenson Fights Back As Vigilantes Try To Keep Migrants Out Of Clinics

As executive director of SECTION27, Sasha Stevenson spent more than a decade fighting for migrants' right to healthcare, holding the state accountable for the Life Esidimeni… Read more »

South Africa: Is South Africa Making Good on Its Climate Promises? Our Sums Say 'Yes' - At Least so Far

To make good on its climate promises, South Africa is aiming to pump no more than the equivalent of 420-million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air by 2030 — and… Read more »

South Africa: Here's How to Make Drug Addiction a Health Issue, Not a Criminal One

Experts say South Africa's contradictory approach to drugs — treating addiction as both a disease and a crime — is fuelling a worsening crisis in places like Westbury,… Read more »

South Africa: Can South Africa Fix Its Health System Before the Courts Decide Its Fate?

The implementation of the NHI is effectively frozen in court and constitutional clashes, blocking South Africa's most sweeping health overhaul since 1994. We talked to health… Read more »

South Africa: Our Advertising Regulator Is Funded By The Food And Beverage Industry. Should It Be Allowed To Block Ads On Sugar's Health Risks?

A pending court complaint alleges bias after the regulator voted to block radio advertisements about the dangers of sugar. Read more »

South Africa: How to Decode Big Tobacco's Illicit Trade Fiction

The tobacco industry is getting ready for the final showdown as South Africa's Tobacco Bill heads into its last rounds, pulling out its well-worn talking points on illicit trade… Read more »

South Africa: When Politics Trumps Science - Why the US Isn't Giving South Africa LEN

By shutting South Africa out of its overseas funding for the roll-out of the revolutionary six-monthly HIV prevention jab which could potentially end Aids, the Trump administration… Read more »

South Africa: How Big Tobacco Stalls South Africa's Smoking and Vaping Law

When first introduced, strict rules about tobacco advertising in South Africa helped to cut smoking from 32% to 24% in a decade. But 20 years later the country isn't the public… Read more »

South Africa: Is the NHI Channelling Operation Dudula's Healthcare Blockades?

This week, the High Court ruled that blocking foreigners from healthcare is unconstitutional. So why does the National Health Insurance Act say that's what we should do when it… Read more »

South Africa: Three Mental Health Breakdowns. One Rural Clinic. And A Lesson In Ubuntu In A Time Of Scarce Resources

On a recent day, Indira Govender, a doctor in a rural community in northern KwaZulu-Natal, was busy with her weekly session at the local clinic when she witnessed three people… Read more »

South Africa: The UN Had a Plan to Fight Deadly Lifestyle Diseases. Industry Pressure Killed Most of It

- The first draft of the United Nations political declaration on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) was unequivocal. “We will increase taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and… Read more »

South Africa: Tickbox Consultations Without Truly Listening Won't Save the NHI. Changing Governance Structures May

If the government is serious about building trust in the health sector, it must start by fixing the way the  National Health Insurance (NHI)  will be governed.… Read more »

South Africa: South Africa Plans Anti-HIV Jab Roll-Out at 300+ Clinics by April. By 2027 the Government Will Be Buying Generics

The health department plans to make the twice-a-year anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir , available at more than 300 government clinics in health districts — with high rates of… Read more »

South Africa: Here's What South Africa's Teen Girls Want You to Know About Their State of Mind

We talked with 50 teenage girls and young women from communities with high rates of HIV, early pregnancy and school drop-out rates to hear what's stressing them out — and how… Read more »

South Africa: Unsafe and Substandard. Is That What Public Healthcare in South Africa Looks Like?

"Unsupervised, unstructured, non-standardised, unsafe, and altogether substandard." This is how the health ombud's report at the end of July described care at two public hospitals… Read more »

South Africa: Professor Screw It, Let's Do It

Francois Venter, a big rock climber, once drank tequila with the PhD-holding virologist rockstar Dexter Holland of The Offspring and, more recently, publicly excoriated both the… Read more »

South Africa: If Your Cigarette Box Isn't Disgusting, It's Not Doing Its Job

A throat ulcer. Bloody urine. A sick baby. That's what smokers in other countries see. In South Africa? For now, it's a tiny black box. Read more »

South Africa: Making Diphtheria Great Again? Why South Africa's Public Health Experts Are Worried About RFK Jr

Misinformation fuelled by US health czar Robert Kennedy Jr is creating a dangerous — and growing — lack of trust in vaccines. Here's why South Africa's public health… Read more »