Weeks after pledging to end child stunting by 2030, President Cyril Ramaphosa has kick-started a task team to drive this urgent national mission. But what concrete steps could government actually take to end stunting? Spotlight sat down for an in-depth interview with one of the country’s leading experts on the issue.
Healthcare funding is always about trade-offs, writes Thoneshan Naidoo, CEO of the Health Funders Association. The hardest question in healthcare is not what we would like to provide, he argues, but what we can provide sustainably, fairly and at scale.
Soft toys, giggly kisses, and bright wards buzzing with excited children meet a driven team of staff and researchers producing world class work at Brooklyn Chest Hospital’s paediatric TB research hub. Biénne Huisman visits the wards and the Desmond Tutu TB Centre’s clinical site as it celebrates ten years and gets early insight of a cutting-edge new treatment trial.
Around 3.8 million people in South Africa developed depression in 2024, estimate leading local researchers in a major new modelling study.
Although TB can be cured, it is still spreading in South Africa at alarming rates. One reason could be that some people with TB disease but without TB symptoms may unknowingly be passing on the bug. In this Spotlight special briefing, Elri Voigt unpacks what we do and do not know about asymptomatic TB.
The wins are there but the underlying reality remains, writes Professor Kogie Naidoo as she likens TB to a bridesmaid awaiting its turn to garner attention. The analogy is relevant given the overwhelming number of new TB infections and deaths each year globally for a disease persistently sitting in the shadow of other communicable and non-communicable diseases.
New TB tests have massive potential for South Africa’s struggle to get to grips with the age-old disease. Making the most of these new tests will require both ambition and smart implementation, argue Gaurang Tanna and Dr Yogan Pillay.
The persistence of TB is a reminder that medical solutions alone are not enough. Renier Coetzee and Ingrid Schoeman write that the disease thrives in conditions shaped by social injustice, including poverty, overcrowded housing, under-resourced health systems, and unequal access to care.
The only tuberculosis vaccine we have is a century old and offers only limited efficacy in children. With leading South African researchers involved in the pivotal clinical trials of three new tuberculosis vaccine candidates, we are on the verge of a major breakthrough, writes Associate Professor Angelique Kany Kany Luabeya.
The new government TB dashboard is a step forward for transparency and accountability in South Africa’s response to the ancient, but still deadly, disease. It is critical that we use it wisely to boost our testing efforts, argues a group of South Africa’s leading TB activists ahead of World TB Day on March 24th.
Journalist Ufrieda Ho passed away of cancer on 9 March 2026. In a career spanning three decades, she wrote for The Star, Daily Maverick, Spotlight, and many other publications.
Universal health coverage cannot succeed with fragmented systems, weak data, and largely symbolic participation. A recent court-ordered pause to NHI implementation offers a chance to build the foundations properly, argue Dr Haseena Majid and Professor Mogie Subban.