Health

Counselling on wheels to come to Khayelitsha

“It will be like an emotional ambulance.” This is the vision of 28-year-old Banetsi Mphunga: a mobile psychology clinic in Khayelitsha which will see kids in the township receive free help dealing with psychological trauma.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 26 June 2015

Showdown over what medicals schemes must cover

A high-profile court showdown is looming between a medical scheme and the patient activist group, Treatment Action Campaign, as well as about a dozen other organisations. Its outcome will have significant repercussions for what schemes offer their members.

Shadi Garman and GroundUp Staff

News | 19 June 2015

How brave nine-year-old narrowly missed falling through the welfare system’s cracks

Luxolo “Nana” Ntsantsa was left paralysed from the waist down after a gunman killed his mother and left him for dead in their small shack in Site C, Khayelitsha nearly a year ago.

Barbara Maregele

Feature | 15 June 2015

The scandal of South Africa’s sick miners

Human rights lawyers have been engaged for ten years in a bid to secure massive damages for former gold miners who suffer from silicosis and TB. As the case heads for the courts, the mining industry is scrambling to offer its own and much less comprehensive solution.

Pete Lewis

Analysis | 11 June 2015

Fireworks at AIDS conference

Benny Malakoane, MEC for Health in the Free State, came under fire while sitting in the audience at the opening of the 7th South African AIDS Conference in Durban on Tuesday evening. Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) chairperson, Nkhensani Mavasa, delivering one of the opening speeches, called for him to be dismissed.

GroundUp Staff

Brief | 10 June 2015

Iris House provides free, community-based care for special needs children

South Africa's first Children's Hospice and Palliative Care Association will be launched later this year, according to the founder of Iris House Children's Hospice Sue van der Linde.

Barbara Maregele

News | 9 June 2015

Where have all the medicines gone?

Drug shortages in South Africa’s health facilities have become a crisis. Today we report that Stanger Hospital and health facilities in Ilembe District KwaZulu-Natal are out of stock of over 200 products between them.

Ashleigh Furlong and Nathan Geffen

Feature | 6 June 2015

Needed: black bone marrow donors

South Africa needs black people to donate their bone marrow. According to the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) there are more than 67,000 donors and only 4,100 are black.

Thembela Ntongana

News | 5 June 2015

Women and addiction: a much neglected problem

Mother’s Day has come and gone with the usual emphasis on happy mothers, loving families and children bringing breakfast in bed to their moms. For many this picture is a good reflection of what happens at home. But for some mothers this picture is far from accurate.

Adrienne Dodds

Opinion | 1 June 2015