OPINION: Struggle for migrant health rights still far from over after landmark judgment

By Mbali Baduza and Kholofelo Mphahlele, April 21, 2023

Posted in: Child health, Gauteng, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, Latest, NHI, Provinces, Reproductive Health

In a landmark court decision, the Gauteng High Court recently confirmed the rights of all pregnant and lactating women and children under age six to access services for free at all levels of care. The court order sets a good precedent for migrant health rights going forward, writes Mbali Baduza and Kholofelo Mphahlele as they explain the build-up to the court proceedings and why this is significant for re-affirming the right to access to healthcare for all in terms of section27 of the Constitution.

OPINION: Struggle for migrant health rights still far from over after landmark judgment

Big Acts, little access: The disconnect between SA’s abortion policies and women’s lived realities

By Boitumelo Masipa and Thembi Mahlathi, September 28, 2021

Posted in: COVID-19, Latest, Reproductive Health, SRHR

Since the enactment of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOP Act) in 1996, there has been a significant disconnect between the official policy on safe abortion and its implementation. The situation has worsened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and access to abortion services is now severely limited, write Boitumelo Masipa and Thembi Mahlathi.

Big Acts, little access: The disconnect between SA’s abortion policies and women’s lived realities

Opinion: Mothers and babies pay the price for medical xenophobia

By Thembi Mahlathi and Sibusisiwe Ndlela, September 9, 2022

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Child health, Healthcare system, Latest

Pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children should have free healthcare services, irrespective of nationality and documentation status. It is an entitlement that our law already affords them and one that we will continue to defend writes Thembi Mahlathi and Sibusisiwe Ndlela.

Opinion: Mothers and babies pay the price for medical xenophobia

OPEN LETTER | R784 million goes unspent as cancer patients continue to die

By Khanyisa Mapipa, Salomé Meyer and Ngqabutho Mpofu, April 24, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Comment, Focus, Gauteng, InFocus, Latest

In this hard-hitting open letter, SECTION27, Cancer Alliance and TAC activists argue that the Gauteng Department of Health has failed in fulfilling its obligations to provide radiation oncology services while over 3 000 cancer patients wait for treatment.

OPEN LETTER | R784 million goes unspent as cancer patients continue to die

OPEN LETTER: It takes more than a march to remedy systemic challenges to abortion access

By Sibusisiwe Ndlela, Khanyisa Mapipa and Thokozile Mtsolongo, March 4, 2022

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Healthcare system, Latest, Reproductive Health, SRHR

On 17 February, Deputy Health Minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo led a march against unsafe abortions in Rustenburg, North West, but a march alone cannot eliminate barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing safe abortions in the public health system. Much more is needed, argue Sibusiwe Ndlela, Khanyisa Mapipa and Thokozile Mtsolongo in an open letter.

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OPEN LETTER: It takes more than a march to remedy systemic challenges to abortion access

How we fail young Women

By lightspeed, June 4, 2013

Posted in: Edition 6: HIV & teens

[caption id="attachment_1230" align="alignnone" width="567"] Photo courtesy of the WHO/Tom Pietras[/caption] Structural faults hamper justice for many victims of sexual abuse in schools SECTION27 and Lawyers Against Abuse are supporting children…

OPINION: The long and painful road to the Life Esidimeni inquest

By Julia Chaskalson, Tendai Mafuma and Mbali Baduza, July 16, 2021

Posted in: Gauteng, Healthcare system, Latest, Mental Health

Although individual families of the mental healthcare users who died after they were discharged from Life Esidimeni in 2016 have been compensated for the violation of their constitutional rights, the actors responsible for the deaths, suffering, and torture of the mental healthcare patients have yet to be held criminally accountable. But that could change after a formal Judicial Inquest into the deaths, starting at the Pretoria High Court on 19 July 2021.

OPINION: The long and painful road to the Life Esidimeni inquest

Opinion: Patients to benefit from new funding and decision to let private sector help with Gauteng’s oncology backlog

By Khanyisa Mapipa and Salomé Meyer, March 10, 2023

Posted in: Gauteng, Healthcare system, Latest, Provinces

On 8 March 2023, the Gauteng MEC for Finance delivered his budget speech in which he indicated that an amount of R784 million has been set aside for the provincial health department to “address backlogs in surgical and radiation oncology services” in Gauteng. Khanyisa Mapipa and Salomé Meyer reflect on the work done to get to this point.

Opinion: Patients to benefit from new funding and decision to let private sector help with Gauteng’s oncology backlog

State capture threatens the right to health

By Spotlight, November 30, 2017

Posted in: Latest, Spotlight

State capture and corruption casts a long shadow over all spheres of the public service, including healthcare. For our World AIDS Day edition of Spotlight Mark Heywood takes on this difficult topic. We’re publishing this important article online today ahead of its publication in print.

State capture threatens the right to health

Episode 3: Sasha Stevenson on what NHI and HMI means for healthcare reform in South Africa

By lightspeed, October 5, 2018

The Spotlight Podcast

Episode 3: Sasha Stevenson on what NHI and HMI means for healthcare reform in South Africa

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At a recent civil society meeting jointly hosted by SECTION27 and Spotlight, Sasha Stevenson, head of health at SECTION27, presented on the implications of NHI and HMI for access to healthcare in South Africa. We now make her informative and thought-provoking presentation available as a podcast. (We apologise for the poor quality of the recording.)

Not forgotten: The sordid story of how Mosebenzi ‘Gupta’ Zwane’s thugs wreaked havoc in a Free State hospital

By Anso Thom, September 21, 2018

Posted in: Editorial, Free State, Latest

An article this week by the Daily Maverick’s Ferial Haffajee The sordid story of Mosebenzi ‘Gupta’ Zwane – South Africa’s most captured Cabinet minister reminds us just what a scumbag this former MEC, Minister and still Member of our Parliament is.

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Not forgotten: The sordid story of how Mosebenzi ‘Gupta’ Zwane’s thugs wreaked havoc in a Free State hospital

In-depth on NHI: Common themes emerging from parliamentary hearings (PART 1)

By Alicestine October, February 8, 2022

Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, Spotlight on NHI

On Wednesday this week, it will be the 25th day of public hearings in Parliament on the National Health Insurance Bill since the hearings started in May last year. In Part 1 of this two-part series on the NHI Bill, Alicestine October looks at how MPs have dealt with oral submissions on the Bill in Parliament so far and assesses what this means for the Bill going forward.