The Politics of Poor Health in South Africa

The paper attempts to unpack certain salient and important issues as concerns health in South Africa and Africa as a whole. It does not pretend to capture all the issues that permeate healthcare on the continent. It outlines the vision to transform South Africa’s health system into a social institution. It further argues that the South African states proposed certificate of need will not address inequities in rural healthcare. The paper posits that South Africa can learn from Brazil’s healthcare model because the favelas (slums) are served by teams of community workers, who are the doctors’ eyes and ears. The paper further looks at the possibilities of improving the lives of millions and posits that the Global South must derive pro – poor policies on the world stage. Finally the paper concludes by positing arguments in term of how Africa can settle its health bill and argues briefly that social factors affect health inequity.