Goodbye Ufrieda Ho, keeper of Jozi and wordsmith of the people
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.
NHI pause should be used to build stronger healthcare foundations
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.
Through dust and carrying steel, Maryke Bezuidenhout takes care to people with disabilities in KZN’s rural corners
Maryke Bezuidenhout is constantly on the road in rural, northern KwaZulu-Natal visiting and helping people with disabilities where they live. As part of Spotlight’s new Rural Health Heroes series, writer Sue Segar and photographer Thom Pierce tagged along with her.
The mosquito hunters working against rising floods and shrinking budgets to end malaria in South Africa
Get to know South Africa’s malaria experts as they outrun hitchhiking mosquitoes and pollution-hardy bugs while navigating a regional funding collapse and a spiralling climate crisis. Joan van Dyk reports.
As another Rare Diseases Day swings by, is SA ready to take it more seriously?
Individual rare diseases impact only a very small fraction of people, but collectively they are estimated to affect over three million in South Africa. As we mark International Rare Disease Day on 28 February, Elna Schütz assesses the state of play with rare diseases in the country.
Obesity medicines are needed in SA’s public sector. Can our government provide them?
In South Africa, access to weight loss medicines like Ozempic and Mounjaro remains limited to those who can shell out a few thousand Rand a month. In the second article of a Spotlight special series, Catherine Tomlinson looks at the medical need for these medicines in the country and what it would take for government to provide them in the public sector.
Russell Rensburg | Consolidate the funding of South Africa’s district health system: why reform can’t wait
District managers in South Africa’s public healthcare system currently have to juggle funding from multiple government budget lines, each with different strings attached. To improve district health services, we urgently need to simplify and integrate these funding flows, argues Russell Rensburg.
EDITORIAL | Spotlight launches new TB dashboard
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.
SA has a “bogus doctor” problem
Bogus medical practitioners threaten the health of patients and undermines trust in doctors. The problem might be growing, but so is the fight against it. Elna Schütz reports.
“There are good people out there who want to do good things” – How healthcare services are being taken to rural Western Cape farms
The health department in the Western Cape is partnering with farms in the Cape Winelands to provide easier access to healthcare for farm workers. Sue Segar unpacks one such partnership and why it is a triple win for workers, businesses and the government.
Blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes medicines sales surge despite cost barriers
Sales of weight loss medicines like Ozempic and Mounjaro have sky-rocketed in South Africa in recent years, although they remain too expensive for most people who might benefit from the jabs. In the first article of this Spotlight special series, Catherine Tomlinson tracks their remarkable rise and assesses when they will become more widely available here.
TIMELINE | The journey of HIV through science, struggle, activism, and hope
From the first reported cases of HIV in 1981 to the latest breakthroughs in long-acting prevention, this Spotlight timeline traces key moments in the global and South African response to the virus. It highlights scientific milestones, political controversies, activism, and the human stories that shaped one of the most significant public health challenges of our time.
