Author: Njih Favour
This project is funded by: It’s been seven months since 17-year-old Busisiwe Tonana died by suicide after learning that she had failed grade 10 in December 2024. Her sudden passing brought attention to the issue of mental illness among young people in the small mining town of Nyakallong in the Free State. Goitsimang Manone, who lives down the road from Busisiwe’s family, says the tragic passing has made her more aware of the pressures her own children might be facing. “I’m worried about my children’s well-being, especially when they get their reports. I fear that if they’re not doing well,…
Two years after the Limpopo Department of Health handed over 35 new state-of-the-art ambulances to Siloam Hospital, patients in the Vhembe District continue to experience delays that put their lives at risk. On Monday, 21 July, a pregnant woman from Ha Maelula gave birth on the side of the road after waiting more than three hours for an ambulance. According to her family, they called for help at 16:00 and were told it would arrive by 19:00. When there was still no ambulance by 19:30, they rushed her to the hospital in a taxi. “She delivered on the side of…
#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 28th July 2025 | Andy Gray For over 20 years, the law has required that the Minister of Health issues regulations to govern the advertising of medicines in South Africa, but as yet no such regulations are in place. In his latest #InsideTheBox column, Dr Andy Gray considers what this means for the marketing of medicines in the country. Anyone who has travelled to…
This project is funded by: Residents of Gugulethu say the Gugulethu Community Health Centre (CHC) clinic is marred by understaffing, unreasonable waiting times and overcrowding. They want a district hospital to be built. Social activist Sethu Ngqoyiyana (25), who lives in Gugulethu, says he has experienced ill treatment at the facility multiple times. On the night of 28 June 2025, he suffered a deep stab wound on his forehead during a robbery. He only managed to go to the clinic the morning after the incident. Ngqoyiyana says he waited for fifteen hours before he was seen by a doctor. “I…
A long-acting pill for HIV prevention has moved into pivotal phase three trials. (Photo: Shutterstock) News & Features 25th July 2025 | Elri Voigt An HIV prevention pill that could provide a month of protection per tablet has been given the green light to proceed to pivotal trials to test its efficacy. Spotlight reports on new findings on the pill that were presented at the International AIDS Conference. There are several antiretroviral formulations proven to prevent HIV infection: a daily pill, two different jabs that offer protection for two and six months respectively, and a vaginal ring for women that…
This project is funded by: It’s been over four months since staff and patients stopped using the main structure of KwaNgcolosi clinic near Hillcrest in Durban. Healthcare services have been provided from two small prefabricated structures and three mobile units since early March, when clinic users reported a snake infestation in the main clinic building. DA Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature, Marlaine Nair, conducted an oversight visit to the facility earlier this year. In a letter to the head of the provincial Health Portfolio Committee, she writes: “Despite vacating the main building, staff are still required to enter it…
Professor Susan Fawcus in the lounge of her home in Cape Town. (Photo: Biénne Huisman/Spotlight) News & Features 24th July 2025 | Biénne Huisman Over a long and distinguished career, Professor Susan Fawcus has become known for her work trying to reduce the deaths of mothers and babies in South Africa. In her home in Cape Town, the soft-spoken champion for health equity chats with Biénne Huisman about her journey as a researcher, doctor, and obstetrician, and shares her fears of rising maternal mortality in an age of austerity. From Cape Town maternity wards to rural obstetric interventions and policy…
When Lufuno (38)* from a small village near Thohoyandou in Limpopo lost her older brother in October 2020, her world changed. What followed was not just a series of personal tragedies, but a slow collapse of her emotional and mental well-being. Just eight months later, her father also passed away. In 2022, she suffered a miscarriage. Her marriage ended shortly after. Then, as she was starting to put the pieces back together, her mother died in February 2024. “I tried to be strong for my younger siblings,” she says. “But inside, I was in pieces. I had anxiety, panic attacks,…
International migrants in the rural village of Mahlathi, in Limpopo’s Greater Giyani Municipality, say they are stuck in limbo, unable to further their education or get stable work because they don’t have identity documents. One is a 37-year-old woman who came to South Africa from Mozambique in 2010, hoping to find work. But without a South African ID, it’s been difficult to find a job, forcing her to sell her body. “To support my children, I have to have sex with men to survive. There is no other way I can have money besides this. I don’t love what I…
This project is funded by: A 23‑year‑old woman from the rural village of Esithumaba in KwaZulu‑Natal is traumatised after she says she miscarried unattended at St Mary’s Hospital in Marianhill, Durban. Notile Mkhize, 18 weeks pregnant, arrived at the hospital at noon on a Friday, suffering severe pain. Staff told her her cervix was dilating and that a miscarriage was likely. Despite her distress, she says she was asked only to sit and wait. “I was in terrible pain. They didn’t help me. They just said I must wait,” Mkhize recalls. She says she was left to deliver the foetus…