All change - 22 Sep 2008

This weekend Thabo Mbeki made South African political history. He did the right thing and is intending to resign in the wake of allegations of political manipulation of the NPA over the Jacob Zuma corruption case. I have mixed feelings about his resignation - realising on the one hand that it is necessary for somone in government to finally do the right thing and resign when they are accused of wrong-doing - but also slightly fearful of the potential political turmoil that we may be about to experience.

But one really good thing is likely to come out of Mbeki's resignation. The talk is that the current health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, will go when Mbeki goes. And if he is going sooner rather than later, then we can only hope that she will go too.

I am not going to speculate on who will take her place - but again we can only hope that it will be someone who once again takes control of our health services and prevents further erosion and starts the re-building process.

The controversial National Health Amendment Bill is also something that the new government will be dealing with - it has specifically been held over until the next term of parliament because other bills have taken precendence. It is also to be hoped that, although there are potentially good aspects of this bill, the worst aspects will be thrown out. Perhaps a new Minister of Health will not be quite a openly opposed to private medicine in this country and will genuinely try to get the two sectors working together effectively instead of constantly trying to undermine the private system.

We could be forgiven for thinking that South Africa is under the curse of 'living in interesting times' at the moment - as is the entire world. But, although change can be scary, it is usually also good. And let's hope that this will be true for public health in this country.