The cost of strike
Jovial Rantao, editor of the African Independent, wrote this personal reflection on the cost of the strike in the NorthWest.
How rural stereotypes are being broken in Bulungula
An innovative project in Bulungula in the Eastern Cape is showing how quality healthcare and education can be provided in a deep rural area.
Funding shock threatens leading health programme for MSM
A trend-setting programme that forms a core part of the South African government’s health services tailored to the needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) is at risk of closing much of its operations because the US government has stopped its funding.
How “Nomakhayas” beat a scabies outbreak
With tenacity, teamwork and a plan of action, a group of community health workers in the Eastern Cape show just how effective they can be in bringing better healthcare to a rural community. UFRIEDA HO met these local heroes.
Sexual and Reproductive Health Wrongs: What do we need to do to get them right? – An activist perspective: Part 2
Part 1 in the series ends with the statement that we have become complicit with a horrendous status quo. We kick off Part 2 with some suggestions about how we can change this.
Sexual and Reproductive Health Wrongs: What do we need to do to get them right? – An activist perspective: Part 1
In a two-part article, Mark Heywood and Thuthu Mbatha, attempt to ask, and suggest some answers to, the hard and painful questions arising from the articles in Spotlight.
Lack of PrEP for young women is a rights violation
With around 2 000 new HIV infections every week in young women and girls aged 15 to 24, South Africa is facing an urgent HIV crisis in young women.
Living positively: Saidy Brown, Mafikeng
Ufrieda Ho, Spotlight, and Leonora Mathe, Treatment Action Campaign Saidy Brown shares how she used social media to speak openly about her HIV [caption id="attachment_6257" align="alignright" width="191"] Saidy Brown, one…
Health4Sale: How the Limpopo Department of Health went rogue to protect Buthelezi HEMS
In a remarkable judgment asserting the rule of law, the North Gauteng High Court has ordered the Limpopo Department of Health to obey court orders and reinstate an aeromedical service provided by Red Cross Air Mercy Service (AMS). The order will force the province to cancel its contract with the controversial Buthelezi HEMS, something it has been reluctant to do despite an earlier order from the Supreme Court of Appeal unequivocally stating that Red Cross AMS, and not Buthelezi HEMS, should provide the service as per an awarded tender.
Living positively: Make Love Safe
Ufrieda Ho, Spotlight Love may be blind; but some things, you shouldn’t ignore – like knowing your and your partner’s HIV status. South Africa is still considered the world epicentre…
Health4Sale: Free State – Multi-million Rand contract delivers dodgy medical equipment
Brand new theatre beds are broken within months and sub-standard anaesthesia machines stand unused following the award of a multi-million Rand medical equipment tender by the Free State Department of Health to a company called Mediquip SA Hub of which two co-directors are George Sebulela, of the Black Business Council and one of the latest additions to the Eskom board, and Tefetso Bernard Phitsane, a senior ANC politician in the Free State and close ally of Ace Magashule.
Living positively: Tshepo Ngoato, Midrand, Gauteng
When Tshepo Ngoato’s doctor and aunt sat him down to tell him he was HIV-positive, he felt as if his world had crashed before his eyes – that he had been dealt a death sentence.