South Africa’s TB Crisis Claims Over 500,000 Lives in Nine Years

Original Article by Yoliswa Sobuwa | TimesLIVE | 30 October 2025

South Africa's TB crisis reveals a grave situation: one in five diagnosed individuals succumb to tuberculosis each year.

South Africa’s TB crisis reveals a grave situation: one in five diagnosed individuals succumb to tuberculosis each year.

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Dr Thembisile Xulu is the new health Director-General, inheriting a strained department, healthcare-worker shortages and NHI litigation.

Gauteng is losing 100 nurses a month and needs R5.7bn to fill a 16,000-post gap. This shortage now flagged as a key risk to the NHI rollout.

Regulation, not demand, blocks affordable cover: medical schemes should be allowed to offer low-cost benefit options (LCBOs) now.