Every weekend up to a 100 children, teenagers and women gather at Refentse Primary School in Stinkwater, north of Pretoria, for free aerobics classes. The weekly events were started by local resident, Khaohelo Tshabalala, known as ‘Miss Tee’ in her…
In the second part of our Hungry For Change series, Health-e News shares the story of a Limpopo widower who has to feed himself, his three adult children and his two young grandchildren with R50 a day. When food runs out, he advices…
In the first part of our Hungry For Change series, Health-e News shares the story of a Johannesburg mother who turned to sex work to feed her three young children. Her youngest was hospitalised with malnutrition earlier this year. A…
South Africa is facing a hunger crisis. This is according to recent submissions by advocacy groups to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)’s Inquiry into the country’s food system. The first phase of the inquiry was held in March…
A Limpopo mother from Maleboho says she regrets taking her eight-year-old son for circumcision at a make-shift surgery that left him with septic wounds and hospitalised for a week. Doris Mosena, from Slaaphoek village in the Maleboho area, says she…
When parents in KwaNyuswa, Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal are unable to take their children to the clinic because of work or other commitments, they turn to 27-year-old Zama Nkwanyana for help. Zama, a mother of two children, aged 7 and 4,…
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…
A young Limpopo mother says caring full-time for her nine-year old daughter with cerebral palsy has left her depressed, isolated and unable to build a future of her own. Mapula Setati (25) from Extension 44 outside Polokwane was only 16…
A young Limpopo mother says doctors removed her womb during childbirth surgery without her knowledge or consent, leaving her in pain and struggling to come to terms with what happened. Dimakatso Madimabe* (20) says she was eight months pregnant when…
A Roodepoort mother is speaking out about life with a stoma after childbirth, saying the condition has changed how she mothers, works and manages her life. Phemelo Seane, 28, says she has been living with a stoma since 2024 after…
Nompilo Maleka is no ordinary granny. The 115-year-old great-grandmother from Driekop outside Burgersfort in Limpopo still wakes up early in the morning, makes her bed, washes dishes and cooks. A copy of her green ID book, seen by Health-e news,…
Community health organisations and activists say female condoms are scarce, while finger and tongue condoms are largely unavailable in clinics, community health service centres and local shops. This leaves some women and members of the LGBTQ+ community with limited options…
Limpopo: An 18-year-old from rural Limpopo says she was denied a legal abortion at a public clinic last month, after a nurse refused to help her on religious grounds, leaving her to seek an illegal abortion from a traditional healer. …
Gauteng: When Mphonyana Mtamane arrived at Zola Clinic in Soweto on the morning of 27 May 2026, she was visibly injured, with bruises and scratches showing on her face and neck. Three days earlier, she had been raped by a…
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