Deputy Speaker,
The ACDP notes that South Africa’s TB response reflects collaboration between the Department of Health, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and the National Health Laboratory Service, aiming to reduce TB incidence and mortality by 2035, with a target of testing some 5 million people annually.
This ambition is technologically bold, yet institutionally fragile. Clearly, the relaunch of Parliament’s TB caucus must confront entrenched failures in oversight, funding, transparency and rural health equity.
The ACDP welcomes the Minister’s recent launch of a near-live TB dashboard to track provincial testing and mortality data. However, we note that it mirrors the electronic vaccination data system from which relevant departments failed to extract lessons on data integrity and rural service gaps.
Deputy Speaker, the ACDP is aware that Parliament’s TB Caucus, aligned with the Global TB Caucus, seeks to mobilise MPs in advocacy, yet its voluntary nature and lack of implementation teeth risk rendering it symbolic.
The ACDP agrees that, regrettably, there has not been an adequate interrogation of provincial disparities in TB outcomes, especially in under-resourced districts. Critics continue to call for performance-linked funding, auditable health metrics, and enforceable provincial accountability, none of which are embedded in the caucus’s relaunch.
Additionally, public commentary has questioned the silence on TB-related corruption and the absence of whistleblower protection in health oversight legislation.
As kingdom builders, The ACDP commits to fighting the spread of tuberculosis, but cautions against government overreach, like we saw with the irrational and some would say illegal COVID mandates.
We must ensure that medical interventions to fight TB, like the promising M72 vaccine, must continue to go through the vigorous scientific, medical and peer review processes, unlike the interventions used under emergency authorisation during COVID.
I thank you.
