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Opinion

The Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Bhekisisa is one of only a few media outlets in the Global South specialising in solutions-based narrative features and analysis. We not only uncover problems but also critically evaluate the solutions meant to fix them. It’s an approach we also take with our opinion pieces.

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Nurses make up 80% of health workers in Lesotho. But they have little power to help their patients.

Meet the nurses fighting on the front lines — with no ammunition

Public health systems are driven by nurses. Yet, they have little authority.
What happened when these two men stopped taking their medicine for TB? They were arrested and thrown into police cells.

Why people failing to take their TB treatment should not be jailed

It's World TB Day. Here's why human rights and TB responses go hand in hand.
Sexism in parliament: Former Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba made unscripted comments in his budget speech which suggested women fall pregnant to get child support grants.

‘Imali yeqolo’: Really, Gigaba? Women fall pregnant to get child support grants?

Gender activists are outraged by the former finance minister’s side comments on government grants during his budget speech.
The Sayana Press allows women to inject themselves with the hormonal contraception Depo-Provera

Why taking back the power starts with you and your vagina

Want to advocate for your uterus? Here are six ways you can do it.
Meet the Cupid female condom.

Did government waste R127-million on a condom no one wanted?

Activists warn new data shows government may have invested millions into the wrong female condom and may be on the verge of doing it again.
New science is changing how we define responsible sex and could empower some couples in which one person is living with HIV and the other isn't. But with great power

Redefining risk: When it’s okay to be HIV-positive and have sex without a condom

HIV-positive people who have very low levels of HIV in their blood can’t sexually transmit the virus. Here’s what it means for you & SA.
Forensic nurse Beatrice Mongale demonstrates how child survivors of sexual violence often use dolls to describe their experience at the Kgomotso Care Centre in Boitekong township in Rustenburg.

This is why some rapists will never face justice

For survivors, any hope of justice depends on the presence of doctors and forensic nurses. The catch? These are few and far between.
South Africa has largely led the world in the quest to create an effective and discreet HIV prevention method that could revolutionise power dynamics in the bedroom – and protect those most vulnerable to infection.

In the future, a simple ring could protect you from HIV and unwanted pregnancies

A vaginal ring could one day offer women dual protection against HIV infection and unwanted pregnancies. Unless this happens.

Abortion: Government to get tougher on doctors with moral objections

Draft guidelines will look to balance a doctor or nurse's right recuse themselves from performing abortions with a person's right to choose.
Applications for 2017 community service and internship positions for medical graduates have just closed but were delayed as provinces scrambled to find money to open posts

We’re launching new medical schools but will we have jobs for their graduates?

The future of South Africa's doctors rests on provincial purses.
Khinali Bagwandeen watched the world watch her father stumble over his words

Stuttering blues: The cadence of social anxiety and identity

He is a father, husband and businessman but the one thing that defined his social existence also taught his daughter an important lesson.
Levy Mosenogi was the man tasked to lead the relocation of almost 2000 mental health patients out of state-sponsored private care at Life Esidimeni facilities.

#LifeEsidimeni: Why seemingly good people came to do very, very bad things

At least 141 mental health patients. As officials take the stand as part of arbitration hearings, a disturbing thread runs through their testimonies.
Protestors from the One in Nine Campaign stage a demonstration. Constitutional Court judge Zak Yacoob said in 2014 that he ‘believed the Zuma trial was not about finding the truth" but about story telling.

Khwezi speaks: ‘I did not do it to win. I was just fighting for...

In a new book, Redi Tlhabi reveals the woman behind the pseudonym and the price she paid for pursuing justice after accusing Jacob Zuma of rape.

What sex workers and clients really want you to know about the business of...

Making sex work safer can lead to less HIV infections and gender-based violence, studies have shown.

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Early adopters: Malawi has already begun using HIV self-testing as part of some clinical trials.

The promise and peril of do-it-yourself HIV testing

One in two people living with HIV still aren’t on treatment, could DIY testing be the solution?