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…
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…
For unemployed father of three, Ramsenyane Lefenya, volunteering at a community garden in Lenasia South close to Johannesburg, means there are fresh vegetables to take home to his family every day. The 34-year-old father of three children aged 7, 9…
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…
For some children at a Nyakallong school in the Free State, the school term means at least one guaranteed meal a day. When caregivers at the We Care Daycare Centre, based at S.A Mokhothu Primary School, realised that children’s need…
18-year-old Maphuti Hlako who qualified to represent South Africa’s under 18 team at an international softball tournament in Botswana, says behind the excitement lies anxiety about injuries, limited access to ongoing medical and mental health support and funding. Hlako is…
Every month Mapiti Seleka puts aside her R370 unemployment grant, knowing that when food prices rise again, she will not have to face them alone. Together with 44 other households in Tsetse Village outside Mafikeng, she belongs to the Reabetswe…
As the Gauteng Education Department faces a R27 billion backlog in school occupational health and infrastructure, parents at a Soshanguve primary school in Tshwane threaten to keep their children home, saying conditions of temporary mobile toilets at the school pose…
When Health-e News first shared the story of 110-year-old Koko Violet Ramadimetsa, her birthday wish was not cake or presents. It was a simple wish to walk safely and live with dignity. Koko Violet, who lives in Hammanskraal, Tshwane, had…
Five-year-old hands grip a small yellow hammer, crushing aluminium cans outside a small house in Embo, west of Durban. By the end of the day, Nokulunga Nkabinde hopes the bulging clear bag filled with cans will earn enough money to…
The grandparents of an 8-year-old Lenasia South girl in Gauteng claim they’ve had to navigate the medical, psychosocial and criminal justice systems alone in the days following the girl’s alleged rape by a security guard at her school. The family…
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…
On a chilly weekday morning, gogo Thozama Toti sits next to a stove, watching her granddaughter prepare a meal of noodles. Another grandchild waits patiently on a bed inside the dilapidated three-roomed mud house in Emaxelegwini informal settlement near Ngcobo…
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