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…
Traditional healers say patients they refer to public clinics can fall through the cracks because the two health systems don’t communicate effectively. Nozuko Nkunzi, a traditional health practitioner from Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, says South Africa’s plans to integrate…
Informal gold miners working around old mine dumps between Nyakallong and Allanridge in the Free State say they risk exposure to mine dust, mercury and other chemicals while trying to earn enough money to support their families. At 48, Thabo*…
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…
When the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) transgender clinic where Kamogelo Moamogoe received her hormone treatment closed last year following cuts to US funding, she says she was given a prescription to buy her hormones herself, but…
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…
More than 10 intersex adults have approached a South African support organisation since 2020 saying they underwent surgery or other irreversible medical interventions as children without their or their parents’ informed consent. One of them is 33-year old Lerato Sikhosana…
25-year old Tiisetso Lekgetho experiences painful periods with heavy bleeding that keeps her home two or three days a month, unable to look for work or go about her normal life. Lekgetho, from Tsetse village outside Mahikeng in the North…
Parents in Musina, Limpopo, say drug addiction is taking a toll on families, leaving some afraid in their own homes and struggling to get help for their children. Their concerns come after the Hawks uncovered a suspected crystal methamphetamine manufacturing…
Nine years ago, Health-e News met Matthew Legemaate while he was waiting for a heart and double-lung transplant. Legemaate, who lives with his parents in Gillitts in KwaZulu-Natal, was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot and…
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,…
At 21, Brandon Booysen from Randfontein in Gauteng is bedridden with end-stage kidney disease and severe bone complications after living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) since childhood. He cannot sit upright for more than a few minutes because of severe…
If there is a statement that still haunts Llona Makhubedu, it is: “Switch off the machine.” Eighteen years ago, her first-born son, Paballo Makhubedu could not breathe on his own after his birth and was placed on life support. Llona…
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…
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