Thirty-year-old mother of four, Ndanganine Mudau, has battled for more than a decade to obtain a birth certificate for her 12-year-old daughter, denying her access to a child support grant as the family battles to meet her growing needs. According…
Health and nutrition experts say the health consequences of South Africa’s food insecurity crisis can begin long before someone becomes sick enough to need hospital treatment. The scale of the crisis came under renewed scrutiny when the South African Human…
Two families in Nyakallong, Free State, are mourning the deaths of two young boys who drowned in a mine dam near Harmony Gold’s Target 2 Rock Dump in Allanridge. Thabo Diloko, 9, and Lethabo Abrahams, 8, died after four boys…
Sewage is still spilling into the yards of residents in Nyakallong in the Free State despite a High Court ruling against the municipality, intervention by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the municipality being placed under administration. Residents…
For some families, dinner is pap and spinach. For another, chicken and bread must stretch across a household of 12. At a Free State school, a plate of samp, beans and vegetables may be a child’s main meal of the…
Residents of Matswale township in Musina say persistent sewage spills and the stench from overflowing wastewater continue to disrupt their lives, more than a year after the Public Protector found that authorities had failed to properly maintain the town’s sewage…
For 34-year-old paraplegic athlete Moloko Pula, getting to hospital for medical care means travelling from her rural village to Polokwane and relying on public transport that does not always accommodate her wheelchair. Pula, who lives in Ga-Semenya village in the…
Children in Saulsville, west of Pretoria continue to use public parks where residents say sewage, illegal dumping and deteriorating infrastructure have made the spaces unsafe. When Health-e News visited Forest Park on Chauke Street, sewage was flowing through the park,…
For the past five years, more than 800 learners and staff at Seetsa sa Kgwedi Primary School in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, have been living with recurring sewage spills on the school grounds. School governing body (SGB) chairperson, Kehwile Ramaru…
Limpopo. Once a month, Neria Amon’s Grade 9 daughter misses school to accompany her mother and four-month-old twin siblings to Musina Hospital for their routine check-ups. Amon, a single mother who survives on social grants, cannot carry both babies on…
55-year-old Dinah Mlambo, who lives with large open growths on her knee, is supposed to travel 26.5 km from her home in Zebediela, Limpopo to a clinic two to three times a week for wound care. But since losing her…
Free State. Every time Phumza Manana suffers an asthma attack, her partner, Mhlangabezi Mgibiza has to carry her through the narrow footpaths of Sanco-ville informal settlement to the nearest place an ambulance can reach. The couple, who have lived in…
Geraldine Norton’s grandchildren do not always bathe before going to school. Instead, they wipe themselves with a cloth and wait for water to return. “The children cannot always bathe before going to school,” says the Limpopo grandmother, who has been…
One year after Health-e News reported on Stinkwater’s sanitation crisis, residents say conditions have worsened. For thousands of residents in Stinkwater, near Hammanskraal north of Pretoria, pit toilets remain the only form of sanitation nearly 60 years after the settlement…
For residents of Mafarafara village outside Burgersfort, reaching the nearest clinic means crossing the Tubatse River on a makeshift bridge and then walking another 1.5km up a steep, bushy gravel road. The village has no clinic of its own. Residents…
Be in the know with our free weekly newsletter. We deliver a round-up of our top stories and insightful reads from across the web.