Author: Njih Favour

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…

A banner outside the offices of an organisation in Mozambique that got defunded by USAID. (Photo: Jesse Copelyn/Spotlight/GroundUp) Comment & Analysis 21st July 2025 | Jesse Copelyn Spotlight and GroundUp published a two-part exposé showing how US aid cuts led to the deaths of children in Mozambique. Here, Jesse Copelyn considers what led to this tragedy and who should bear responsibility for it. After the US Agency for International Development (USAID) abruptly terminated billions of dollars’ worth of overseas aid grants, the health system in central Mozambique was left in tatters. Earlier this year, I travelled to two badly hit…

PEPFAR, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has been hailed as “the most important and consequential contribution to public health”, providing HIV treatment to around 20 million people around the world. In January, U.S President Donald Trump froze all programmes supported by PEPFAR. In February, programmes providing life-saving HIV care, including prevention of mother-to-child transmission, were allowed to continue under a limited waiver. This week, the U.S. Senate made a move that’s given the HIV community some hope: they voted to protect PEPFAR from $400 million cuts proposed in Donald Trump’s rescission package.  At the International Aids Society…

A 22-year-old woman from Musina has accused staff at Messina Hospital of negligence after she was allegedly left to give birth on her own in a general ward, without medical assistance. Her premature baby was born without a heartbeat. Monica Madumi, who was five months pregnant at the time, was admitted to the hospital on the evening of 28 June after her water broke. Although a doctor initially said everything appeared normal, Madumi was later informed that her womb had begun opening and that a miscarriage was likely. She claims her condition deteriorated overnight, with repeated calls for help ignored…