Author: Njih Favour

02 Jul  SAHPRA welcomes new Board Members Posted at 13:57h in News & Updates by Melanie Govindasamy Pretoria, 02 July 2025 – The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) welcomes its newly appointed Board Members. The SAHPRA Board is appointed by the Minister of the National Department of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. The appointment is in accordance with section 2C(2) of the Medicines and Related Substances Act, 1965 (Act No. 101 of 1965) as amended. The Board is appointed for a five-year term, effective from 01 July 2025 to 30 June 2030. The new Board members are Dr Thapelo…

“If you are not South African, from today you will not be allowed into any South African hospital.”This was the message delivered by a member of Operation Dudula outside Hillbrow Clinic on Monday to a foreign national. It was not an isolated incident. In recent months, many videos have circulated on social media showing South Africans – including private citizens and members of the anti-migrant group Operation Dudula – barring individuals they identify as foreign nationals from accessing healthcare services at various facilities across Gauteng and other parts of the country. The group blames migrants for placing undue pressure on…

Low screening coverage, late diagnoses, high HIV prevalence, and limited access to treatment and vaccines are driving cervical cancer cases and deaths in South Africa. The country has a cervical cancer rate of between 22.8 and 27 per 100,000 women, much higher than the global average of 15.8 per 100,000. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in South Africa. Each year, over 10,700 women receive a cervical cancer diagnosis, and more than 5,800 lose their lives to it. Women with HIV are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer than those who are HIV-negative. Because…

No cases of the new SARS-CoV-2 variant NB.1.8.1 has been detected in South Africa at this stage. (Photo: Joyrene Kramer) News & Features 30th June 2025 | Biénne Huisman COVID-19 has largely dropped out of the headlines, but the virus that causes it is still circulating. We ask what we should know about a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2025, and the lack of access to updated vaccines in South Africa. In the leafy Johannesburg suburb of Sandringham, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) bears a deceptive facade. Do not be fooled by…

Historic equipment failures and ongoing staff shortages have placed immense pressure on MRI services in Gauteng’s public hospitals. The province has only eight MRI machines spread across seven hospitals to serve an estimated 12.5 million people who rely on the public healthcare system. As a result, more than 3,500 patients are currently awaiting MRI scans, underscoring a severe diagnostic backlog and the strain on Gauteng’s already overburdened health infrastructure. An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan is a non-invasive medical imaging technique that uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the body’s internal structures. It plays…

Security services is said to cost R77 million per year at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. (Photo: Rosetta Msimango/Spotlight) News & Features 27th June 2025 | Ufrieda Ho In just two years, the Gauteng health department’s spending on security has more than tripled. We try to get to the bottom of the ballooning bills and what it means for governance in the department. The Gauteng Department of Health’s projected R2.54 billion spend on security contracts for 2025/2026 has received the thumbs up, fuelling suspicion in various quarters. It comes as the department claims to lack the funds to fill vacancies,…

Free State Health MEC Viceroy Mahlatsi admits that staff in his department have failed to ensure that the infrastructure at health facilities is well maintained. Mahlatsi says the recent closure of clinics and state morgues in the province by inspectors from the Department of Labour and Employment is evidence of the neglect.   “I personally understand the labour inspectors who are closing down facilities. I have ordered internal inspections of all facilities so we know what we should do. It’s disappointing that people fail to get services because facilities have been closed due to unsafe conditions,” he says. This week, Mahlatsi…

This project is funded by: The strong smell of raw sewage is hard to miss as you drive or walk through the streets of Tshiame B, near Harrismith in the Eastern Free State.  Residents say human excrement and foul-smelling water constantly flow through their yards and streets. They say they’ve been living with unattended, blocked and leaking sewerage pipes for over 30 years.  It has become every family’s duty to work around the spillages and try to redirect it into the streets by digging make-shift canals.  Manthabiseng Mdakane, who has lived in Tshiame since 1990, says this has been their…

Costancia Maherepa sits on a reed mat outside her home in Manica town. Beside her, in black, is her former case worker, Ivone Mupacocha. (Photo: Jesse Copelyn/Spotlight/GroundUp) News & Features 25th June 2025 | Jesse Copelyn Part two: If Marco Rubio came here, “we could show him the evidence” of deaths, says villager. After the abrupt termination of American aid, the health system in central Mozambique descended into chaos. In part one of this special series, Spotlight and GroundUp explained how children with HIV had been abandoned by US-funded case workers. In part two, we describe how the funding cuts…

A cancer patient receiving care at a public health facility in Gauteng. (Photo: Rosetta Msimango/Spotlight) News & Features 25th June 2025 | Chris Bateman Experts say cancer patients in the public sector in South Africa are dying for avoidable reasons like dysfunctional referral systems and a lack of medical imaging and treatment. We look at efforts to get the country’s battle with cancer back on track. Many people with cancer in Gauteng have not been able to access the treatment and care they require in recent years. Though activists and the provincial government are at odds about what should, or…