In March 2015, the South African Human Rights Commission held a hearing on Emergency Medical Services in the Eastern Cape. The Commission’s interest in Eastern Cape emergency medical services emerged from a complaint submitted to the Commission by the community of Xhora Mouth, a group of around 2000 people living Continue Reading
First appeared on the Daily Maverick by Mark Heywood, Director of SECTION27 Today, 10 July, marks one year since the Bophelo House 94 were arrested for participating in an ‘illegal demonstration’. This week, across the miles and miles of brown and blighted farmland that separates Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free Continue Reading
SECTION27, RHAP, TAC, BEMF and RuDASA invite the public to two consultations to discuss the health crisis in the Eastern Cape in Mthatha on the 16th of May and East London on the 18th of May. Read more…
SECTION27 welcomes increases in the health care budget, but concerns remain Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivered the 2012/13 Budget Speech to Parliament yesterday. Considering the difficult fiscal environment in which the 2012/13-2014/15 was formulated, SECTION27 welcomes the proposed increase to the health budget of R12.3 billion over the next three Continue Reading
On 25 October 2011 the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, tabled the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) at a sitting of the National Assembly. The MTBPS broadly outlines Government’s proposed spending plans for the next three years. It also provides an opportunity for Government to make adjustments to this year’s budget to cater for changes in expenditure and provide for unanticipated expenses.
In August 2011 the Auditor General released a report on its performance audit of the infrastructure delivery process in provincial departments of Health and Education. The audit was conducted at all provincial departments of Health and Education and their implementing agents such as the department of public works.The report Continue Reading
The recently published “i-Base and TAG 2011 Pipeline Report makes clear, medically, the prospect for people with HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) to live long and healthy lives – and in the cases of HCV and TB, to be cured rapidly with safe, effective, oral combination therapy – have never been better.
We are a range of organisations who campaign for the right to health, and/or who provide health care services to poor people who depend on the public health sector. We fully support the efforts of the government to improve health care services. We also support unions and their members who are at the front line of health care provision, and who justifiably try and draw attention to the difficult conditions in which most health care workers operate.
With the vitally important UN High Level meeting on AIDS only one week away, the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) has issued an important resolution setting out the country’s position in the negotiations for a renewed commitment to HIV and TB.
On 8–10 June, 2011, key stakeholders from all over the world will gather in New York to review progress of the global response to HIV/AIDS and to plan the way forward. This forum has the potential to reinvigorate the commitment to HIV/AIDS nationally and internationally.
In light of this, on 20 May, SECTION27, TAC, Médecins Sans Frontières, the World AIDS Campaign and the AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa sent a letter to the Director General for Health calling on the South African government to take the lead in setting ambitious and measurable targets, and encouraging similar commitments from other UN member states.
Cabinet recently resolved to ask Parliament to take the necessary steps to enable South Africa to ratify a decision taken by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on intellectual property and access to medicines. At its meeting held on 16 March 2011, Cabinet decided to request Parliament to –
– ratify the WTO decision on the implementation of paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health; and
– deposit “an instrument of ratification … with the WTO.”
As organisations that are committed to ensuring universal access to essential medicines, as an integral part of the constitutional right to have access to health care services, TAC and SECTION27 call on Parliament not to ratify the decision. In this press statement we explain why we make this call.
SECTION27 hosts groundbreaking Southern African Regional Activist Dialogue on a proposed Framework Convention on the Right to Health (FCGH)
1. Report on Southern African Dialogue
2. Programme
3. Participants list
4. Discussion Document