My newspaper career began at The Natal Witness (3 years) and continued at the Cape Times (17 years), where I covered every beat except health, something I later made up for. I served for two-years as London Correspondent for the-then South African Morning Group of Newspapers, returning to help cover the historic 1994 elections before joining the Cape Times parliamentary reporting team. I resigned from the Cape Times in 2000, having made a name for myself with township coverage during the 80’s struggle years, to join the South African Medical Journal, (SAMJ), where I served as the News Editor and chief reporter. Sixteen years later I resigned from the SAMJ, having won six annual Discovery Health Journalism awards (Commentary and Analysis and Best Trade Publication categories) and having edited the sister Healthcare Gazette for two years, to go freelance, full time. During my SAMJ tenure (in 2008), I won the Cape Town Press Club’s Senior Journalist of the Year bursary award for my motivation to probe the Cuban training program for South African doctors and controversies surrounding the then newly-instituted compulsory community service for newly-qualified doctors. This funded story later won me a Discovery Health Journalism award.
Today my clients include, among others, Discovery Health, EthiQal (the medico-legal arm of Constantia Insurance), the Hospital Association of South Africa, (HASA) and several weekly media titles. I’ve built up solid, trusting relationships with key healthcare players and top decision-makers in the public and private healthcare sector, whom I readily access, while keeping up to date with healthcare and political developments. My reporting experience, Nguni language ability, credibility and contact with top government officials, politicians and key players in academia, research and healthcare delivery puts me in a unique position to deliver quality content for a variety of media. I edited and proof-read the national HIV/TB and STD NSP plan for National Department of Health, (NDOH), released December 1st, 2016. My clients include Discovery Health, (I wrote their Foundation Awards 2019 and 2021 books, 190-page glossies, profiling 20 or so of SA’s top healthcare physicians and academics, handpicked for game-changing super-specialist study and/or research. They are very carefully selected, the aim being to strengthen yawning knowledge and skills gaps in the public healthcare sector).
I’ve been a freelance contributor to Noseweek, (RIP), Finweek, Fin24, Broombergs, Leadership Magazine and Popular Mechanics. I also regularly write up medical conferences and research papers for healthcare bodies and pharma companies.
