- South Africa’s HIV programme, once sustained by US support, is at risk. Without replacement funding, South Africa could see a 38% increase in Aids-related deaths by 2028 and up to 150 000 HIV infections.
- With some frontline services collapsing and mobile clinics funded by the US emergency fund, Pepfar, lying idle, it’s feared many of SA’s eight million people living with HIV might forgo their treatment.
- The average person with HIV in SA is aged 41, which means treatment access isn’t just about survival; it’s about protecting our workforce.
- But there’s a promising breakthrough: the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the HIV prevention jab, lenacapavir, and it could be registered in SA by early 2026.
- Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told Health Beat he’ll find the money to buy the jab if donors can’t help. But how much should we pay for it? Find out.
In today’s newsletter, our Health Beat team asks “Will SA buy the anti-HIV jab lenacapavir?”. Sign up for our newsletter today.
Anna-Maria van Niekerk is Bhekisisa’s news editor. She joined the centre after six years as the managing editor of the investigative television show, Carte Blanche. Anna-Maria has an extensive career in in-depth health and human rights reporting and has been named both the Vodacom Journalist (2002) and Discovery Health Journalist of the Year (2010) for exposés on the selling of human body parts for muti in Limpopo and the devastating consequences of HIV denialism.
Mia Malan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Bhekisisa. She has worked in newsrooms in Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington, DC, winning more than 30 awards for her radio, print and television work.
Jessica Pitchford is Bhekisisa's TV and multimedia editor. She's been a journalist since the early nineties and has reported on some pivotal events in South Africa’s political history, such as the country’s transition to democracy and the work of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
Yolanda Mdzeke was a junior multimedia reporter and multimedia reporter at Bhekisisa between March 2021 and June 2025.
