Health system reform efforts in South Africa appear to have stagnated. Following over a decade of discussion and debate, stakeholders are weary and do not trust each other’s motives and opinions. 

This stagnation is fatal. South Africa’s health system is under immense strain and its inequities are well known. Some people continue to receive insufficient care while others are over-serviced in the interests of profit. Health care workers are burning out. Uncertainty about changes that may never come is causing jitters in the middle class and impatience among those who cannot imagine a changed system leaving them worse off. 

It is within this context that this research has been conducted. SECTION27 and Concentric Alliance (CA) wanted to see what stakeholders in the health system (when they are away from the public eye) agree on, what they disagree on, and whether there is the possibility of bringing them closer together in the interests of fixing a decidedly broken health care system. 

Report by SECTION27 and Concentric Alliance