If there is one place that symbolises the dysfunction of public health, it is the Eastern Cape. Already crippled by staff shortages, it continues to haemorrhage nurses and doctors, who are driven away by the working conditions. It is a cruel and seemingly unending conundrum. Add to this the Aids epidemic and the recipe is one for near total breakdown.
Five years ago, Nkosi Johnson died of Aids at the age of 12 — but his legacy lives on at Nkosi’s Haven, a Johannesburg home for HIV-positive mothers and their babies. Located in the city’s Berea suburb, Nkosi’s Haven has been going for seven years and is now home to more than 90 residents — 14 HIV-positive mothers, 51 children and 26 orphans.