In 2012, the South African-based Mail & Guardian newspaper covered few health issues. The health stories that did make the publication’s pages appeared in a sponsored pull-out supplement, hidden inside a newspaper filled with "more worthy" political and investigative articles.
The M&G’s online health section was barely read and buried on the site as a sub-subsection of the news subsection.
But this scenario has since changed drastically.
With support from the German government, the M&G launched a health journalism centre, Bhekisisa, in January 2013. This enabled the publication to appoint a health editor and two reporters and also to offer reporters from other publications fellowships so they could be mentored when writing health stories.
In September 2015, Bhekisisa received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its health coverage to the rest of the African continent. In March 2016, the centre launched its own website and registered as a non-profit organisation that receives and manages funding independently from the M&G.
The centre regularly hosts and organises critical thinking forums on subjects such as South Africa’s National Health Insurance scheme, tuberculosis and the decriminalisation of sex work. Bhekisisa also conducts trainings on health issues for journalists and effective media communication for policy makers.
The Bhekisisa Health Journalism Centre is based in the offices of the M&G. As a content provider to the newspaper, it serves as the M&G's largest specialist editorial desk. It has eight full-time staff members, including a director/editor, deputy editor, programme associate, senior multimedia journalist, three health journalists and a social media and content producer. Bhekisisa also has a part-time Africa editor, health writer and monitoring and evaluations specialist. Moreover, the centre works with about ten freelance correspondents across Africa.
The print edition of the M&G has two weekly health pages, but Bhekisisa reporters also publish articles in the newspaper’s comment and analysis and general news sections. Between 2012 and 2017, the online readership of the M&G’s health stories has increased 35 fold.
“People were fighting for their lives and arming themselves with knowledge. Whether it was in small drop-in centres on Chicago’s west side or the streets of Cape Town, activists were teaching themselves and each other the science to combat the lies about treatment and stigma.
That’s something that has always stuck with me and influences my reporting to this day. It was this tactic that I saw repeated again and again as I covered HIV internationally.”
Lopez spent seven years covering health in Southern Africa and globally for the humanitarian news service, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN). She has also written for specialist publications such as Aidsmap and as a research consultant for the Open Society Foundation, where she examined international HIV and tuberculosis funding.
She also spent several years working as a communications officer, researcher and writer for Doctors Without Borders and has partnered with organisations such as the Johns Hopkins Centre for Global Health to train fellow journalists in the reporting of clinical trials. In 2011-12, Lopez was an International Women’s Media Foundation HIV Investigative Fellow.
Lopez is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and holds a masters degree from the University of Chicago.
Rosaline Daniel is Bhekisisa’s programme associate.
She holds Master’s degrees from the Universities of Cape Town and Westminster in the United Kingdom in International Relations and Technical and Specialised Translation.
Daniel monitors the fulfillment of donor requirements, and develops information systems for financial and progress reporting to ensure that Bhekisisa remains compliant. She also ensures all administrative work is carried out for the assigned programmes in line with procedures.
Daniel works with Bhekisisa’s engagement officer and other team members to organise and conceptualise training and critical thinking forums.
Before joining Bhekisisa Daniel worked at the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town, where her responsibilities included fundraising, donor coordination, monitoring and evaluation, and communications and outreach. Her research interests included gender and peacebuilding in Liberia and South Sudan, and Russia’s foreign policy in post-Cold War Africa.
Daniel has experience working with a range of donors including the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. She has also worked with the governments of Finland, the Netherlands and Norway.
“I am excited to be entering the world of donor-funded journalism and to be providing administrative support to the rest of the Bhekisisa team so that they can focus on in-depth, impactful specialist health reporting.”
Roxy de Villiers, Social media content producer and engagement officer
Roxy de Villiers crafts Bhekisisa's social media and assists with website and online content.
She assists with organising media trainings and critical thinking forums on health issues for policy makers.
De Villiers honed her skills in community media. Before joining Bhekisisa, she worked at Caxton Local Media's Randfontein Herald. She’s also worked for community newspapers in Johannesburg, Knysna and George.
While at Randfontein Herald, de Villiers was one of the first journalists to report on the Life Esidimeni tragedy in 2015 long before it hit the mainstream media.
In 2017, she was part of a team of Caxton journalists who assisted a sister mediahouse, Group Editors Publications and Online Platforms, with reportage on the Knysna fires.
De Villiers has also worked with the Rosebank-based community radio station, Radio Today, as a guest newsreader.
"Community media requires you to do everything - from reporting to taking pictures to proofreading. It’s been an extremely valuable experience,” De Villiers says. “I’m proud that I helped to provide important information to those with little to no access to information particularly those in low-income communities."
To read more stories by Roxy De Villiers click here.
Nelisiwe Msomi, Junior health journalist
Nelisiwe Msomi is a junior journalist at Bhekisisa. She holds a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Johannesburg.
Previously, Msomi was a volunteer member of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation’s media team and started off her career as an intern at Bhekisisa.
She is interested in the effect of government policies on ordinary people and hopes to one day find a solution for long, 6am queues at state clinics.
“I have always seen journalism as a means of making the world a better place," she says. "Being part of Bhekisisa allows me to do just that, especially through the practice of solutions-based journalism."
To read more stories by Nelisiwe Msomi click here.
Joan van Dyk, Health journalist
Joan van Dyk graduated with an honours degree in journalism from Stellenbosch University in 2017. She was the top performing student in the class of 2016.
Joining Bhekisisa marks Van Dyk’s debut as a journalist, but she was instantly captivated by the all-encompassing nature of health reporting in Africa. She grew up travelling the continent and aspires to reveal issues that are relevant to the well-being of its populations.
“Health stories expose the human fragility that unifies us all. I am looking forward to writing stories that unravel the health policies and politics that impact on the lives of everyday people across the continent.”
DC Bush, Senior multimedia journalist
DC Bush studied journalism, specialising in television and photography, at Rhodes University. In 2008 they won the SABC Young Journalist of the Year award for a mini-documentary on the food crisis in South Africa.
Bush spent four-and-a-half years as a multimedia reporter at the Mail & Guardian from 2010 to 2014. During this time, they exhibited their photography in South Africa and Europe and won two Standard Bank Sikuvile awards for their reporting on corruption and police brutality.
In 2012 Bush, together with Craig McKune and Verashni Pillay, was the first ever recipient of the CNN African Digital Journalist of the Year award.
Bush left the news world to work for the nonprofit organisation Sonke Gender Justice. While there, they explored issues of gender-based violence, documented the legal battles of gold miners suffering from silicosis, and investigated the inhumane conditions in which awaiting-trial prisoners at Pollsmoor Prison are housed.
Bush returned to the M&G to work at Bhekisisa because they wanted to expose injustice and tell people’s stories.
"Health relates to everything, from gender to prisons. Health is everything," they say. "Multimedia is a wonderfully powerful tool to use to tell those stories."
DC Bush is non-binary and is referred to using the gender-neutral pronouns "them" and "they", as is international practice.
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