Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za
3-minute read | 22 August 2025 | 10:05 CAT

📷 Section27 and Cancer Alliance celebrate a High Court ruling affirming cancer patients’ right to timely care amid Gauteng Health delays.

A landmark court ruling has been hailed as a critical victory for South Africa’s cancer community after the Gauteng High Court reaffirmed that the provincial Department of Health acted unlawfully in failing to address a massive backlog in radiation treatment.

The case, brought by the Cancer Alliance and represented by Section 27, centred on a list of 3,000 patients awaiting life-saving radiation therapy at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. Some had been on the backlog list for more than four years.

“We do understand that if you do not receive your radiation therapy within three months, you are severely compromised,” explained Cancer Alliance’s Salome Meyer.

Despite the National Treasury allocating R784 million in 2023 to address the crisis, including R250 million specifically for outsourcing oncology services to the private sector. The Department failed to act and returned the funds unspent. This, Meyer stressed, prompted urgent legal action.

In its March ruling, the court declared the Department’s conduct “unlawful and unconstitutional” and ordered it to update the backlog list within 45 days and report within 60 days on how it would manage affected patients. Yet the Health Department denied the existence of the backlog list, claiming none had ever been provided.

“Emphatically, we can say the backlog list was in fact shared with the department as early as March 2022,” Meyer countered, accusing officials of stalling while patients’ conditions worsened.

When the Department appealed, it argued that the appeal process suspended its obligations under the ruling. The latest urgent judgment, however, reaffirmed that life-threatening matters cannot be stalled pending appeal. “This creates an important precedent, healthcare facilities are not to freeze services during appeal processes,” Meyer noted.

The ruling compels Gauteng Health to act without delay, but it may again seek leave to appeal. Campaigners warn that further litigation would only waste money while patients suffer.

Beyond the immediate crisis, the Cancer Alliance has raised concerns about broken diagnostic equipment, such as a PET scanner at Charlotte Maxeke that has been out of service since March. “Patients are not being informed about the consequences. They don’t know what to do or where to go,” Meyer said.

Advocates argue that accountability must be enforced through courts, the Health Ombud, and patient activism. “We need to hold government accountable to do what they have to do,” Meyer concluded.

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Salome Meyer.