My book is now available a little earlier than expected on the link below. Your comments are very welcome! https://publisher.co.za/product/walking-the-road-of-healthcare-in-south-africa-my-40-year-journey/
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A reflection on “Echoes of Austerity” … the truth should be told!
I recently, completely by chance, came across a paper published in 2019 in a peer-reviewed journal, Focaal – Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, authored by a United States based, South African academic, Theodore (Ted) Powers entitled, “Echoes of Austerity”. (https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/focaal/2019/83/fcl830102.xml?rskey=kneG81&result=1) It was disconcerting to find that I featured as a less than flattering central point of this anthropological discourse on, “Policy, temporality and public health in South Africa”. Further investigation revealed that Powers is an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa having previously been affiliated to the University of Pretoria. In the abstract of the paper he indicates that his intention was “to explore how policy principles associated with…
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The state of South Africa is not good!
As I write this, I am challenged by the state of South Africa today. Echoing the words of an American President, Gerald Ford, addressing the United States Congress in his 1975 State of the Union Address when he memorably told his nation that, “the state of the Union is not good” I would say that “the state of South Africa is not good”. South Africans are challenged daily by failures of service delivery from local, provincial and national government as well as State-owned entities. As a South African health professional I am particularly concerned by the impact of these failures on the public health service that serves the majority in this…