Author: Njih Favour

Comment & Analysis 17th February 2026 | Spotlight Spotlight has unveiled a new tuberculosis (TB) dashboard and graph generator. We hope this dashboard will help people get a clearer picture of the state of South Africa’s TB epidemic – an epidemic that still claims over 50 000 lives a year. Spotlight’s new TB dashboard and graph generator follows on the launch of a similar HIV dashboard last November. Both of Spotlight’s dashboards show estimates from the latest versions of the Thembisa mathematical model. Thembisa is Spotlight’s preferred source for most HIV and TB numbers. We thank the Thembisa team for sharing their data.  Where the new dashboard fits in  We see Spotlight’s TB dashboard…

The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness says it has no plans to comply with a 2025 Labour Court ruling that community health workers (CHWs) must be absorbed into the formal health workforce.  For decades, CHWs have been functioning as part-time workers, employed on a contractual basis, earning stipends, with no pension benefits. Most of these workers were hired by non-profit organisations, and contracted by various provincial health departments. The court ruled that CHWs must be absorbed into the health departments’ formal labour force, where they’d earn salaries and qualify for a pension.     But the Western Cape is not…

13 Feb SAHPRA Fast-Tracks Access to Critical Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccines to Protect South Africa’s Livestock Pretoria, 13 February 2026 –The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) confirms that it has granted Section 21 authorisation for the importation of the Dollvet Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine with conditions and is currently assessing an additional application for the same vaccine. Foot and Mouth Disease is a highly contagious viral disease affecting cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. It causes fever and painful blister-like sores in the mouth, on the teats, and between the hooves. While…

This project is funded by: At 6am on a Saturday morning, 43-year-old Luvhengo Vhulahani leaves her homestead in Tshakhuma village in Limpopo’s Makhado Municipality. It’s 8am when she returns. She walks slowly, balancing a heavy stack of firewood on her head. As she approaches the yard, she slows her pace, exhausted. She knows her family is already hungry – especially the two-year-old child waiting at home. Vhulahani walks to the back of the house, where meals are usually prepared in an open space under a tree. Her 74-year-old grandmother has already started a fire, with a large pot of water…

#InsideTheBox is a column by Dr Andy Gray, a pharmaceutical sciences expert at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Pharmaceutical Policy and Evidence Based Practice. (Photo: Supplied) Comment & Analysis 12th February 2026 | Andy Gray In South Africa, as in many places, pharmaceutical companies are not free to change medicine prices as they wish. In his latest Inside The Box column, Dr Andy Gray unpacks how medicines prices are regulated in the country and considers how this regulatory framework might change. South Africa’s medicine pricing policies are recognised internationally for their commitment to…

Hluvukani next to Nazareth Church before and after the cleanup. (Photo: Eksoda Mazibuko) On Monday Health-e News reported on the appalling state of waste collection in Hluvukani in Mpumalanga. Residents described how the large metal refuse bins placed by the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM) at various locations around the community were overflowing, with waste left uncollected for extended periods.  Soon after our story was published, the municipality pledged to clean up the areas. The Bushbuckridge municipal team will be on site to clean the area tomorrow,Tuesday .— Bushbuckridge Municipality (@BbrMunicipality) February 9, 2026 And they did. Health-e News visited the…

Emeritus Professor Leslie London at the Wild Fig in Observatory, near the Amazon development he fought to oppose. (Photo: Biénne Huisman/Spotlight) News & Features 11th February 2026 | Biénne Huisman From academic corridors to ministerial meetings and rural reaches, Leslie London has never shied away from speaking truth to power. Spotlight speaks to the Emeritus Professor at the University of Cape Town, who, still in his bright signature shirt and trademark wry grin, continues to fight health inequity. A fighter for human rights in the tumultuous years before South Africa’s first democratic elections, Leslie London qualified as a medical doctor…

At a clinic in the north of Pretoria, a pregnant woman tried to register as a patient in the facility’s antenatal care using a South African identity document (ID) with a photo that didn’t match her face.   It further emerged that the woman had recently been turned away from another clinic due to inappropriate documentation.  The clinic matron called the police to resolve the dispute and to assess the authenticity of the ID. But prior to that, the woman received care. “The staff ensured that the patient’s vitals were taken, before handing her over to SAPS, which resonates with the…

This project is funded by: Residents of Hluvukani are accusing the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality of failing to provide basic waste management services. Large metal refuse bins placed at various locations in the community are overflowing, and waste goes uncollected for extended periods.  Several community members say a lack of awareness campaigns have left the areas exposed to environmental and health hazards. Hophney Mdluli stays close to one of the communal bins. He tells Health-e News that the rubbish site near his home has become a serious concern. He describes unbearable fumes coming from the bin.  “Although municipal trucks sometimes empty…

Under South African law, no one may practise medicine unless they have the proper training and are officially registered. (Photo: Unsplash) News & Features 9th February 2026 | Elna Schütz Bogus medical practitioners threaten the health of patients and undermine trust in doctors. The problem might be growing, but so is the fight against it. “If you’re in the hands of an unqualified person, you’re as well as dead, and we think it is not fair for the country,” Dr Magome Masike tells Spotlight. He is the Registrar of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), which is responsible…