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Vusimuzi Madonsela, South African Ambassador to the Netherlands, and then Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, prepare to attend a hearing on January 11 and 12 2024 at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). (Photo by Michel Porro/Getty Images)

Gaza: South Africa must urgently return to the International Court of Justice

As humanitarian needs soar, provisional measures are needed for the full cessation of hostilities in Gaza.

Bleak: Many families, especially in poor areas, such as the rural Eastern Cape, are struggling to pay for funerals for their loved ones. Photos: Paul Botes

Cost of funerals in South Africa a grave concern

With the cost of living rising, many families can’t afford to bury their loved ones and assistance is needed

NGUNJANA VILLAGE, SOUTH AFRICA JUNE 20: (SOUTH AFRICA OUT) Initiates are smeared with white clay on their face and are covered in red and white blankets on June 20, 2014 in Ngunjana Village, South Africa. The winter circumcision season is under way in the Eastern Cape and elsewhere in the country. Traditional surgeons and health authorities are working together as much as possible to limit injuries and deaths. (Leon Sadiki/City Press/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Mpumalanga boys ‘kidnapped for forced initiation’

Traditional leaders blame those who fail to enforce the laws that govern the practice

President Muhammadu Buhari. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

Unfit for office: The perils of reporting on the president’s health

Tanzanian president John Magufuli’s death came after weeks of denial, but reporting on the fitness of African leaders can be perilous for journalists

Post-election violence mars otherwise calm poll

The Ghana Electoral Commission has declared the incumbent president, Nana Akufo-Addo, the winner of the 2020 elections

The site where Tshiamo Hleza died

Construction sites are a ‘death trap’

Four children died at Pretoria sites in just two weeks, but companies deny they’re to blame

Covid-19 patients arrive to the Wakefield Campus of the Montefiore Medical Center on April 06, 2020 in the Bronx borough of New York City. A specialised bus known as a Medical Evacuation Transport Unit (METU), carries patients on stretchers and benches. The patient transfers are designed to help overwhelmed hospitals even out caseloads in Westchester County and New York City at the epicentre of the US coronavirus pandemic.  (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Air pollution link in 15% of global Covid-19 deaths

Researchers have found that, because ambient fine particulate air pollution aggravates comorbidities, it could play a factor in coronavirus fatalities

Up to one in five people can get long COVID — a condition in which someone keeps on feeling ill for months after their initial symptoms have cleared up. (Paul Botes)

‘Jobs vs health’: What will shape public-health policies after Covid-19?

Comorbidities, particularly noncommunicable diseases have been put into the spotlight during the Covid-19 pandemic. How we approach preventing NCDs in the future will depend on…

South African universities record 22 deaths from Covid-19

A Universities South Africa survey shows that 20 people — 19 staff members and one student — at local universities have died after contracting the coronavirus

Confusion about Gauteng’s Covid-19 gravesite preparations shocked the nation last week.

Hard-hit municipalities brace for more deaths

South Africa’s Covid-19-related deaths have been comparatively lower than the rest of the world. But municipalities are preparing for the worst

Gauteng responds to grave concern

The news of Gauteng’s grave site preparations raised alarm about the expected number of Covid-19-related deaths in the province

Not ideal: Mass burials take place on Hart Island, New York, last month. Stephen Fonseca of the Red Cross says it ‘highly discourages’ the practice for a variety of reasons. (Andrew Theodorakis/Getty Images)

Looking after the Covid-19 dead to protect the living

South Africa has largely escaped the fate of several European countries and the United States, but that doesn’t mean we can’t prepare, just in case