The SAMJ, Izindaba, Years (2000-2016)
Healthcare Gazette
As editor of the Healthcare Gazette I contributed to several of the articles in the magazine.
Multidisciplinary teams – the rural way forward (Jan 2008, Vol. 98, No. 1)
An afternoon shower near Zithulele Hospital brings welcome rain for local maize and vegetable crops. (Photo: Ben and Taryn Gaunt.)
New Health Ministers – so little time, so much to do (Nov 2008, Vol. 98, No. 11)
New Health Minister Barbara Hogan shows solidarity with triumphant TAC stalwart, Zackie Achmat, hours after her appointment.
Transgender patients sidelined by attitudes and labelling (Feb 2011, Vol. 101, No. 2)
An androgynous figure contemplates passage through dissolution to environments that differ as day does from night. Picture: Robert Hamblin, Advocacy Manager at GenderDynamix.
Denying reality no longer an option – stark HR report (Oct 2011, Vol. 101, No. 10)
Hastily re-opened nursing colleges need to churn out 51 200 professional nurses over the next decade and medical campuses double their output of GPs over the next 15 years – just to maintain the current (dismal) ratios to population.
Doctor shortages: Unpacking the 'Cuban solution' (Sep 2013, Vol. 103, No. 9)
Professor Joe Veriava, head of the South African government’s Academic Review Committee.
Adverse Events - at last a scientific way forward? (Feb 2008, Vol. 98, No. 2)
Professor Stuart Whittaker, COHSASA’s CEO, Dr Rod Smith, CEO of the Australian-based Patient Safety International, and COHSASA data co-ordinator, Petro de Beer. Picture: Courtesy of COHSASA
How (not) to handle doctors... (Jun 2008, Vol. 98, No. 6)
Manguzi doctors Mark Blaylock (left) and Colin Pfaff alongside their outpatient department.
Incompetent maintenance/inept response - eighty more Eastern Cape babies dies (Jun 2008, Vol. 98, No. 6)
Yonele Jamta, 4 , who lost her 22 month-old brother, Siviwe, and Pamela Fuma, 2, play at one of Barkly East’s formerly deadly communal taps. Picture: Nigel Louw, Daily Dispatch
Manana's costly machinations: Naude vidicated (Dec 2008, Vol. 98, No. 12)
Dr Malcolm Naude, together with two other State doctors who also lost their jobs at the hands of fervent ART denialist, former Mpumalanga Health MEC, Sibongile Manana, has been legally vindicated, winning R100 000 compensation.
Epitomising hope: from poverty to worldclass healer (Aug 2013, Vol. 103, No. 8)
UCT’s Dr Neliswa Gogela, winner of the MGH Fellowship, with a patient.
World's first successful penis transplant at Tygerberg Hospital (Apr 2015, Vol. 105, No. 4)
Transplant team (l – r) plastic surgeon Prof. Frank Graewe, urologist Prof. André van der Merwe and immunologist Prof. Rafique Moosa. Photo: Chris Bateman.
'Populist politicians' take aim at 'soft-target'doctors (Sep 2015, Vol. 105, No. 9)
Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Minister of Health.
Mental Health Under Budget (Jan 2015, Vol. 105, No. 1)
Prof. Crick Lund, of UCT’s Department of
Psychiatry and Mental Health.
Defusing the new drug-resistant TB (Aug 2014, Vol. 104, No. 8)
Prof. Keertan Dheda, top expert on drug-resistant
TB. Picture: Chris Bateman.
The smell of coffee, blood and disinfectant... (November 2014, Vol. 104, No. 11)
Dr Sa’ad Lahri and colleague Dr Hendri Lategan.
Turning ‘fate’ into destiny by seizing a second chance at life (Jan 2015, Vol. 105, No. 1)
Daryl Brown.
I was part of the BizNews team for three years from December 2016. Following my cancer diagnosis in November 2019, I penned several articles on survivorship and the challenges of being immune-compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biznews founder/owner, Alec Hogg, conducted an in-house and subsequently much-acclaimed interview with me to get my take on that journey, one he felt was much in the public interest.
Our colleague Chris Bateman and why stats don’t mean a damn thing
At Biznews, we strive to follow our craft’s directive – being a “journalist” means publishing both sides of any story, debits and credits. Admittedly, we deviat ...
Inside with Chris Bateman: When Covid-19 and chemotherapy potentially collide
The deadly threat of Covid-19 multiples when one’s immune system is compromised, such as the three million HIV infected individuals not on ARV’s.The deadly thre ...
One of the most dramatic Western Cape crime stories of the 80’s was my coverage of the Gugulethu Seven murders (see the full movie). A crime reporter at the time, I extracted three key eyewitness accounts of a shoot-out in the township. My report formed the launch-pad for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission probe with startling results, resulting in my being a key witness at TRC police indemnity application hearings.
GUGS 7 recollected
As Crime Reporter for the Cape Times, I arrived at the Thomas Boydell building, headquarters of the SA Police in the Western Cape, shortly after 9am on March 3, ...