Lofty talk of health rights must reckon with Northern Cape realities
OPINION
The Health Ombud’s recent report revealed shocking neglect at Kimberley’s Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital (pictured) and the Northern Cape Mental Health Hospital, where patients died from hypothermia and pneumonia, staff were critically overstretched, and systemic failures in leadership and infrastructure left vulnerable people without safe care.
Image: File picture / DFA
WHEN the Health Ombud gathers policymakers and medical professionals in Johannesburg next week to reflect on “Health and Healthcare as a Human Right”, the optics will be impeccable. The venue is grand, the speakers are powerful, and the rhetoric will no doubt soar.
But here in the Northern Cape, the words will ring hollow unless they are matched by action.
Only weeks ago, the Ombud’s own report laid bare what “health as a human right” looks like on the ground in Kimberley: patients freezing to death at the Northern Cape Mental Health Hospital; another dying of pneumonia, likely worsened by the cold; a third left permanently disabled after surgery. Staff shortages were so dire that one nurse might be responsible for 27 patients. Generators failed during power outages, leaving emergency equipment useless. Leadership instability compounded the chaos.
These are not the abstract failings of a health system “in transition”. They are the lived realities of families in Kimberley and the Northern Cape who entrusted their loved ones to state facilities and got neglect in return.
That is why the Ombud’s inaugural conference cannot be treated as just another talking shop. For Northern Cape residents, it raises a blunt question: how can we talk about human rights in health when those rights have so clearly been violated right here at home?
Yes, it is important to convene, to debate, to reflect. But communities like ours have heard all the right words before. We have seen reports written, task teams promised, and inquiries launched. And yet — our hospitals still lack staff, our patients still suffer, and our health system still feels like it is buckling.
So let the Ombud and the Minister of Health come together and speak about justice, dignity and accountability. But let them also speak about Kimberley. Let them explain what concrete steps are being taken to ensure that the deaths detailed in July’s report are never repeated. Let them tell us how they will stabilise leadership, fix procurement failures, and guarantee that mental health patients are treated with humanity.
Until then, “health as a human right” remains a fine principle trapped in a conference hall — a promise unfulfilled for the people of the Northern Cape.