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The cost of caring: Zithulele’s Ben Gaunt, one year later

In 2022, after a decade of service, Ben Gaunt, who led a team who transformed Zithulele Hospital in the Eastern Cape from a struggling public health facility into a poster child of excellence, left the facility. The drama, which followed the appointment of a controversial CEO, was well publicised. We spoke to Gaunt one year later.

From Alexander Bay to Tshwane: Meet the health department’s Mrs Impossible

From growing up without a telephone to her appointment as the chief director of digital health systems in the national health department, the sweep of Milani Wolmarans’s life story is as wide as it is inspiring. Sean Christie spoke to her in Tshwane.

Meet Andy Gray, the ‘insider’s insider’ of SA drug policy

Pharmacy expert Andy Gray is the “insider’s insider” in South Africa’s public health sphere. Get to know him better here.
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What ChatGPT won’t tell you about Tlaleng Mofokeng

Get to know sexual and reproductive rights activist and doctor Tlaleng Mofokeng with our reporter Sean Christie.

A mezuzah, a Christmas wreath & rooibos with milk: Get to know this NICD...

Anne von Gottberg and Cheryl Cohen are two of South Africa’s foremost scientists. We’ve got them and their colleagues to thank for the country’s world class surveillance of SARS-CoV-2. But this powerful duo are also experts on how to bridge divides — and married.
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What happened to HIV activist Zackie Achmat?

Zackie Achmat was one of the most vociferous voices against former president Thabo Mbeki’s HIV denialism in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He now lives in downtown Cape Town and fights state capture — and broken trains.

‘Call me Tumi’: Meet the young woman who heads SA’s medicines regulator

Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela leads the country’s medicines regulator, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), a public entity few people knew about until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. COVID triggered a noisy scramble for vaccines, tests and treatments that needed to be approved — often embroiled in politics.