Health & Education
From The Report: South Africa 2012
View in Online Reader

Change is expected in South Africa’s education sector over the coming years. The sector receives a large share of the national budget, with some R189.5bn ($23.19bn), or 19% of all state expenditure, spent on education in the 2011/12 fiscal year. However, results have yet to materialise. The government has been eyeing different strategies to improve the education system and remove the regulatory and bureaucratic confusion challenging the sector. So far, the schooling system has shown signs of improvement, with the number of overcrowded public schools dropping from 50% to 24% between 2006 and 2011.

South Africa currently offers universal health care via hospital access. But this standard of care is far lower than what those who can afford private care have access to. Therefore, the Department of Health is embarking on a multi-decade plan called the National Health Insurance (NHI) to provide better health care for citizens. The idea is to eventually ensure a higher standard of care for all South Africans, to eliminate the disease burdens complicating the challenge and to move from a system based on curing health problems to one in which prevention plays a larger role.

This chapter contains interviews with Frank Thompson, Chief Executive, ADvTECH Group; and Adrian Gore, Chief Executive, Discovery Holdings.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Seeds of change: Improving outcomes is crucial to enhancing the economy
OBG
plus

Change is expected in South Africa’s education sector over the coming years. Although the government has historically been willing to spend what it takes to make the desired improvements that are so frequently discussed in the media, such as addressing bureaucratic inefficiencies in the public sector, results have yet to materialise. Rather than continue on the same path, the government has been eyeing different strategies to better the education system. One thing never in doubt in South…

Analysis

Carving out a niche: Low-cost private schools offer an alternative to the state system
OBG
plus

Private schools have long been a controversial subject in South Africa. Questions that frame the debate include whether they are outbidding the public sector for good teachers, helping to ease the burden on the public sector, or contributing to the overall national goal of reducing unemployment. ON THE RISE: For parents, however, the goal is simply to provide their children the best education possible, and that has resulted in a proliferation of private schools catering not just to those who…

Interview

OBG talks to Frank Thompson, Chief Executive, ADvTECH Group
OBG
plus

Interview:Frank Thompson Do you believe South Africa’s skills shortage is impeding economic growth targets? FRANK THOMPSON: In my opinion, the skills shortage is a bigger impediment to the country reaching its economic growth target than the fact that it missed out on the commodities boom. To reach its growth aspirations, any country needs a smart and tech-savvy population. This does not just mean producing thousands of techies, as people also need to have drive, competitive skills, ambition…

Interview

OBG talks to Adrian Gore, Chief Executive, Discovery Holdings
OBG
plus

Interview:Adrian Gore What are the most pressing needs in regards to improving public health care provision? ADRIAN GORE: The public system is underfunded, but not as dramatically as many perceive. The levels of efficiency and the productive use of money are very poor, and management of the system needs to be improved. There is a lot of money being spent but we are not seeing this translate into new infrastructure or the new nurses and doctors that we need. South Africa’s per capita government…

Overview

Overhauling the sector: Public-private partnership opportunities are expected to rise
OBG
plus

Both the public and private sectors play significant roles in health care in South Africa. The country suffers from health problems commonly associated with extreme poverty, such as high maternal mortality rates, yet also boasts some of the world’s most elite facilities and doctors. Another trait that marks the health care challenge in the country is the disease burden: HIV and AIDS are the most commonly cited epidemics, but the country’s health care professionals have identified several…

Analysis

Prevention better than cure: Safeguarding against disease will help ease the load on hospitals
OBG
plus

Though there was very little certainty as to precisely what the National Health Insurance (NHI) plan entails as of early 2012, it was thought that it would bring profound changes to the health care sector in South Africa. The plan is a government effort to close the gap between the quality of health care available to the rich and poor, and is in line with a long-running theme of governance in South Africa of reducing the disparities in what is historically a two-tiered system, by addressing the…