Author: staff
Why is it that a health facility’s service can be rated as “good”, but its CEO says the day-to-day staff situation is such that it “compromises service delivery”? In our second story on what the quality of healthcare at South Africa’s public health facilities is, we take a deep dive into the data of South Africa’s health standards watchdog.
Sbusiso Leope, better known as DJ Sbu, is part of a social media campaign that’s been pushing back on parts of the tobacco Bill that is in front of Parliament. He’s just one of many influencers who say they are defending informal traders, but public health advocates and researchers warn this selective, emotive picture is one often presented by the tobacco industry.
The EFF’s draft Private Member’s Bill for debt relief for students and another by ActionSA to scrap MPs’ compulsory membership of the Parliamentary and Provincial Medical Aid Scheme are awaiting public comment before they make their way to Parliament.
The Stellenbosch municipal council has asked its human resources manager to explain why he should not be suspended after the circulation of a viral video of him suggesting that life for white employees should be made “difficult” until they resign.
The Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban’s Cato Manor is operating at around 40% below surgical capacity, according to senior doctors there. As one of a small number of central hospitals in South Africa, it provides specialist services unavailable elsewhere in KwaZulu-Natal and serves as a critical hub for training healthcare workers.
Undocumented migrants and asylum seekers are being turned away from government clinics and hospitals by xenophobic groups, while the NHI Act says they’re only entitled to emergency care. HIV activists say that’s neither wise nor legal.
Further stoking persistent tensions in South Africa, social media users are purporting to show undocumented foreign nationals making soap in illegal factories intended for customers of informal supermarkets known as spaza shops. But the claim is false; the video was filmed in a soap factory in Pakistan.
The South African Weather Service has forecast fog in some parts of the country, particularly in the morning, but later temperatures will heat up becoming fine, and warm to hot in most parts. Isolated showers can be expected along some parts of the coast in the Eastern Cape.
The City of Cape Town’s safety and security directorate has urged residents to report people and businesses selling cough syrup and other medication to children, warning that the practice is fuelling substance abuse among those as young as seven.
The health department plans to make the twice-a-year anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir, available at more than 300 government health districts with high HIV infection rates between April 2026 and March 2028. By April 2027, the department anticipates that it could start to use government money to buy cheaper generics.