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Health governance
Gauteng Health labelled a 'mafia' after hospital repair scandal exposed
In response to scathing findings by the Public Protector, a committee has been established that will ensure long-delayed repairs at the fire-damaged Charlotte Maxeke...
SIU on a mission to recoup millions from illegal ambulance contracts
The Special Investigating Unit’s quest to claw back millions from controversial businessman Thapelo Buthelezi, who has frequently made headlines since 2018 and who was...
Gauteng Health fails to vet thousands of childcare staff
The Gauteng Department of Health has not vetted nearly 40 000 staff who work with children, raising serious concerns about child safety and patient...
NHLS flounders as Health Departments owe R11bn
The total collapse of the National Health Laboratory Service appears imminent if provincial Health Departments owing it nearly R11bn don’t pay their high outstanding...
KZN Health to investigate Pietermaritzburg hospital allegations
A complaint lodged with the South African Human Rights Commission has prompted action from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, which has now launched an...
Call for justice after forced sterilisations
Government has been slammed for its prevarication and failure to assist the HIV-positive victims of forced and coerced sterilisation, reports The Citizen.
Local NGO Her...
More than 200 KZN ambulances in the sick bay
Nearly half of the entire fleet of KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health ambulances is sitting in workshops awaiting repairs, with diagnostic delays, inflated parts replacement costs...
Lack of equipment at Tembisa risks lives – DA
A shortage of vital equipment like ventilators and basic examination lights is jeopardising the lives of patients at Tembisa Hospital, according to the DA,...
Ongoing battle against unregulated medicine
From unregulated weight loss injections to unsafe pain tablets, substandard and falsified medical products pose a massive health threat. For Spotlight, Elna Schütz reports...
Municipality unable to account for millions paid by hospital
Questions have been raised and a forensic probe launched after more than R17m, apparently paid by Pietermaritzburg’s Northdale Hospital to the Msunduzi municipality for...
Africa CDC launches group to guide genomics governance, innovation
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), recently launched the African Strategic Advisory Group on Genomics (ASAG), which aims to independent...
Diabetes could drain $5trn from world economy – Chinese study
New modelling shows that apart from the obvious health threat, diabetes is also a major long-term economic threat, with disability, treatment costs and lost...
Ex-Health MEC in court on fraud, corruption charges
Former KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni (64) appeared in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court (Pietermaritzburg) last week facing fraud and corruption charges linked to hospital...
MEC orders turnaround plan after Wentworth Hospital visit
While an unannounced late night visit to Durban’s Wentworth Hospital by KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane was welcomed by the nursing union, it was...
Global Fund to cut SA’s grant by 25% in two years – in eight years it will be gone
South Africa has less than eight years before one of the most important sources of funding for its HIV and TB programmes falls away,...
Police boss suspended over controversial health tender
South African police chief General Fannie Masemola, who has denied any role in the controversial R360m health tender awarded to Vusi “Cat” Matlala’s company...
Stalled Grey’s Hospital repairs project moves up ‘priority list’
There’s hope yet for ailing Grey’s Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, with its non-existent aircon and inhumane operating theatre conditions, amid various delays and drawn out...
Western Cape Health to ramp up its workforce with 800 new frontline posts
Western Cape Health is ramping up its workforce with 800 new frontline posts, but after years of austerity and with long lists of vacancies,...
Supplier still selling expired medicines to Malawi state facilities
Despite a recommendation to revoke its licence, one of Malawi’s largest pharmaceutical suppliers that was shut down for supplying state hospitals with faulty antibiotics...
Tembisa Hospital kingpin loses more supercars
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU ) has swooped on 11 luxury vehicles, including limited-edition supercars, belonging to alleged Tembisa Hospital looting kingpin Hangwani Maumela...
Justice for Life Esidimeni victims as state moves on prosecutions
After years of investigation, and a decade of excruciating delays, buck-passing, heel-dragging and institutional resistance, senior health officials implicated in the deaths of at least...
Choice of new Health boss will test Ramaphosa’s commitment
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...
ANC bigwig’s daughter to repay millions in PPE contract scandal
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has welcomed the two judgments handed down by the Special Tribunal last week, which reviewed and set aside unlawful...
Court lashes department over non-compliance in vigilante case
The Department of Health and other government respondents have failed to comply with a court order to stop anti-immigrant vigilantes from screening patients, and...
Can talks avoid courtroom war over NHI?
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi recently had a meeting with the South African Medical Association (SAMA) – one of the organisations taking him to court about the...
Police officers arrested over ‘Cat’ Matlala health contract
A dozen police officers have been arrested by the National Prosecuting Authority’s Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) in connection with a R360m health contract linked...
Millions diverted from circumcision project to actress and cronies
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) has revealed that R20.56m in grant funding for a circumcision project from the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) was instead...
Overdue patient fees climb to billions in Gauteng
Overdue patient fees have climbed to a staggering R4.6bn at Gauteng provincial hospitals and, in the case of a private hospital, led to a...
National Health Lab Service IT system down – again
The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), which provides laboratory services to every single public sector health provider countrywide, reported a major disruption to its...
Gauteng Health denies debt affects services at Tshwane hospital
The Gauteng Department of Health has denied that R33m in unpaid supplier debt is forcing providers to restrict services to Odi District Hospital, or...
Doctors arrested amid escalating tensions at Nairobi Hospital
One of Kenya’s leading private medical institutions, The Nairobi Hospital, is facing a deepening governance crisis after sudden arrests at the weekend of senior...
Fragmented optometry services an eye-opener for NHI
Universal health coverage cannot succeed with fragmented systems, weak data, and largely symbolic participation, so a recent court-ordered pause to NHI implementation offers a...
Eastern Cape Health boss faces HRC for department failures
The Human Rights Commission has ordered the beleaguered Eastern Cape Health Department to explain why it failed to address 27 public complaints – some...
Motsoaledi suspends health boss and top officials
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has placed the head of the department, Sandile Buthelezi, and two other senior officials – all facing fraud and theft...
HPCSA demands millions from former boss
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has demanded its former president, Simon Nemutandani, repay more than R6.1m it says he allegedly siphoned...
Eastern Cape drug suppliers suspend services over R1bn unpaid bills
The Eastern Cape Department of Health is facing a critical shortage of medicines after racking up unpaid pharmaceutical bills of about R1bn, with 21...
Kenyan health, hospital officials charged in multimillion-dollar fraud probe
Charges against a number of directors from various Kenyan hospitals as well as several government officials all linked to Social Health Authority (SHA) fraud –...
Health boss and top officials on fraud, theft charges
The head of the national Health Department – whose conduct has come under scrutiny more than once in recent years – and two other...
Convicted fraudster gets CEO job at Free State hospital
Free State Health has appointed convicted fraudster Zongezile Adam Zumane – with no healthcare background – as CEO of Senorita Nhlabathi Hospital, exposing the...
SAHRC orders Northern Cape Health to fix mental hospital mess
The SA Human Rights Commission has given the Northern Cape Department of Health 60 days to sort out the appalling state of the Northern...