As the country heads to the polls, some South Africans have mixed feelings about service delivery and the quality of health services in their communities. Health-e asked Mpumalanga residents what they thought about the province’s public clinics and hospitals.
John Zulu believes having a vasectomy is a sign of weakness. Zulu, a 59-year-old taxi driver from Piet Retief, called the male sterilization procedure a disgrace to his culture and accused the government of brainwashing black men to accept it.
Many Vuwani residents have vowed to stay at home on 8 May because of severe water shortages, sewage spills, uncollected rubbish bins and lack of essential medication at their local clinics.
“No jobs, no vote,” shouted unemployed nurses who marched to O.R Tambo Health sub-district offices in Lusikisiki last week. The unhappy nurses sang, carried placards and handed over a memorandum demanding that the Eastern Cape Department of Health employ them in the Ingquza Hill municipality.
Mpumalanga - Dumisani Calvin Mabasa, 28, moved 175km from the town of Siyabuswa to Johannesburg to live in a society where his sexuality was accepted.
Thirteen-year-old Ruan Malan was born a healthy boy in 2006 - or so his parents thought. His mother, Julia, remembers the family’s joy when they took their baby boy home from the hospital after three days; he was just like any normal newborn.
John Phati (42) from Tembisa gets tested for HIV at least twice a year because he doesn’t like using condoms even though he has multiple sexual partners.
Five-year-old Shantel* is covered with eczema scars and has lived in isolation almost her life with a condition that could have been prevented if her local clinic had made the correct diagnosis when she was few months old.
Nicolyn Mohale (45) was called to a home in a Limpopo village to attend to an emergency in the middle of the night.
A male contraceptive pill recently passed its first safety test – but South Africans are unsure about whether they would ever use it, with some men fearing that it might permanently affect their sperm production.
Mental health centres are struggling to feed their patients because a large chunk of their budgets goes towards rent.
Mpumalanga - Ndumiso Prince Cele turned to alcohol and drugs in an attempt to cope with the “shame” of suffering from bipolar disorder.
South Africans who suffer from the lupus are not able to get access to the only medicine developed to treat the auto-immune disease because it has not yet been registered here.
Mpumalanga - Ndumiso Prince Cele turned to alcohol and drugs in an attempt to cope with the “shame” of suffering from bipolar disorder.
South Africans who suffer from the lupus are not able to get access to the only medicine developed to treat the auto-immune disease because it has not yet been registered here.
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