TAC, Stop Stockouts Project and Ritshidze launch report into the effects of violent protests in South Africa on health service delivery

October 2021 – In July 2021, a spate of violent protests erupted mainly in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces. This started with the burning of trucks along the N3 highway. While many arguments have been posited about the origins of these, as well as the reasons for their evident groundswell, what is clear is that extensive damage in terms of loss of human lives, destruction of property and the curtailing of some rights was witnessed. According to the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA), the country had lost an estimated R20 billion due to the looting, with over 800 stores looted in over 100 malls by the 19th of July.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) as an organisation representing public healthcare users, the Stop Stockouts Project (SSP), and Ritshidze were concerned and set out to investigate. This concise report highlights what we found out. We emphasise that this is reflective of the efforts of the TAC’s 8,000 people strong membership base, as well as TAC, SSP and Ritshidze members of staff who use or monitor these facilities. In areas where we have no presence, we have relied on secondary data from the Department of Health.

During the week between the 10th and the 17th of July 2021, the team collected data through interviews with facility managers from healthcare facilities, district health management staff and medical depot teams in a bid to assess the state of healthcare services during these difficult times of protests in the country. Some data was verified via TAC comrades using health facilities. The data was collected from Gauteng, Limpopo, KwaZulu Natal, Free State, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Mpumalanga provinces.

The full results are outlined in a new report available here: https://www.tac.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TAC-Civil-Unrest-Report.pdf