Job rights, better healthcare and taxes: What life could look like for SA sex...
The justice department is currently reviewing comments from activists, academics and civil society on a proposed new law to decriminalise sex work. They will then ask the cabinet to take it to parliament before it can become law. Mia Malan interviews Deputy Justice Minister, John Jeffery, and United Nations special rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, about what's next for sex workers.
Bloody politics: Meet the politician who plans to end period poverty
Gloria Orwoba, a Kenyan politician, is on a mission to end period poverty in that country, where government statistics show over half of women cannot afford products such as pads. Orwoba is pushing for them to get free sanitary products.
#Budget2023: Peer inside the health sector’s purse
There will be no increase in the tax on sugary drinks until 2025, the Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced during his budget speech on Wednesday.
#SliceOfLife: ‘Let’s pray you’ll be okay. My escape from a backyard drug rehab
South Africa plans to roll out treatment for opioid addiction to all government health facilities by 2028, according to a draft of the country’s sixth HIV action plan. Read one person’s story of recovery here.
Lesotho’s cannabis boom isn’t giving locals the high life they were promised. Here’s why
In 2017, Lesotho became the first African country to legalise cannabis. Nearly six years later, the industry is yet to change the country’s fortunes.
City planners, street vendors & spaza shops could help keep SA fed. Here’s how
Local governments back many projects where people can grow vegetables in urban areas. But researchers say that it’s not enough to curb hunger in South Africa’s growing cities.
STI home tests could be coming to SA’s free medicine pick-up points
Big changes are coming to South Africa’s fight against sexually transmitted infections, according to a draft of the country’s fifth HIV action plan.
Could electric bikes clean the air in the country of a quarter-million motorcycles?
In 2019, diseases linked to air pollution killed 1.1-million people in Africa. Could electric motorcycles save lives with cleaner air?
Parents, here are 8 measles outbreak questions — answered
We answer the biggest questions surrounding the current measles outbreak and explain who is eligible to get an extra vaccination.
Ozempic: A hashtag & a helpful effect collide & drain global stocks of a...
Medicine shortages are common. But what happens when a shortage of an effective medication happens because people who the medicine isn’t intended for are drying its stocks? We explain here.
What reduces child marriage and poverty? Ask Zimbabwe’s young chess queens
In the small rural town of Chivhu, Zimbabwe, 10-year-old Grace Zvarebwa is training for a pan-African schools chess tournament in Liberia. Chess is an activity normally reserved for the country’s elite schools, but the sport has transformed the lives of rural school girls like Zvarebwa.
Come work with us. We’re looking for a health news geek
The Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism is expanding even more.
‘I punched him on his potatoes’: Meet the grannies fighting back against GBV
Korogocho is one of Nairobi’s most dangerous slums, where rape and robbery are common. Beatrice Nyariara is helping women aged 55 to 90 to fight back.
Decriminalising sex work can protect sex workers – and everybody else – from GBV
South Africa has published proposed changes, in the form of a draft Bill, to legislation that makes sex work illegal. If parliament votes in favour of the amendments, sex work will be decriminalised. Public comment on the suggested changes closed on 31 January.
What’s behind the Big Tobacco job cuts? A guide to SA’s illegal tobacco trade...
British American Tobacco in South Africa says 200 of its workers will be out of a job soon, but public health researchers argue they’re using misleading figures to back the retrenchments.
‘They fail us, year in and year out’: Why community health workers are ditching...
In South Africa, trade unions have a reputation for having workers’ back. But for many of the country’s community health workers, these organisations are no longer an ally.