It has been a bruising year or so for medical researchers in South Africa with the US pausing, cancelling, and then resuming some grants. But as bad as things were, what played out wasn’t the worst case scenario, and momentum is now building toward recovery.
When push comes to shove, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s talk of building a more capable state hasn’t always been backed up by the appointment of committed and capable people to key government positions. His decision regarding a new Director-General for health will say a lot about how serious he actually is about addressing the country’s many health challenges, argues Spotlight editor Marcus Low.
Spotlight has unveiled a new tuberculosis dashboard and graph generator. We hope this dashboard will help people get a clearer picture of the state of South Africa’s TB epidemic – an epidemic that still claims over 50 000 lives a year. It follows on the launch of a similar HIV dashboard last November.
The year’s biggest health story by far has been the cuts to US aid for health and US support for health research. But it’s also been a year of important HIV prevention developments, NHI court cases, ongoing crises in some of our provincial health departments, and some first steps toward accountability for the corruption at Tembisa Hospital.
Spotlight has launched a new HIV dashboard and graph generator based on outputs from the Thembisa model. Our hope is that this dashboard will help the public and people working in healthcare to find important HIV numbers more easily. Please take a look and let us know what you think of it.
The courts have spoken. The health ombud has issued devastating reports. The Auditor-General has again put damning evidence on the table. Civil society has protested. Yet, the devastating crisis in Gauteng’s health system shows no sign of improvement.
The sudden and severe US cuts to grants from the world’s largest health research funder threaten to unravel the medical research landscape in South Africa. A crucial question now is whether the government will turn this crisis into an opportunity for renewal, write Marcus Low and Nathan Geffen.
Following President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend foreign aid, President Cyril Ramaphosa can display great leadership by meeting with leaders of wealthy countries and convincing them to increase spending to support the health systems of poorer countries, write Nathan Geffen and Marcus Low.
From the NHI Act to major advances in HIV prevention, it has been another busy year in the world of healthcare. Spotlight editors Marcus Low and Adiel Ismail recap the year’s health developments and identify some key trends in fewer than 1 000 words.
While we focus here on the nine deaths that Judge Mmonoa Teffo found to be unnatural, there were 144 deaths associated with the Life Esidimeni tragedy. Ultimately, these were human beings and for the world to know what happened to them is better than the world not knowing.
In some respects, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi was the right person for the job when he was appointed as South Africa’s Minister of Health in 2009. But in 2024, the healthcare context in the country looks very different. Spotlight editor Marcus Low asks what we might expect from this new chapter with Motsoaledi in the top health job.
After the ANC received less than 41% of the votes in last week’s national elections, negotiations are now underway that will determine how and by who South Africa is governed. Ministerial posts, including the country’s top health job, might be on the negotiating table. Spotlight considers the candidates for the post of South Africa’s Minister of Health.
