Note to Editors: Attached please find a soundbite in English here by Madeleine Hicklin MPL.
Skin cancer patients requiring treatment for basal cell carcinomas and other pre-cancerous skin lesions at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) have finally received treatment for the first time in eight months.
This is a result of sustained pressure from the Democratic Alliance (DA), which exposed the prolonged shortage of medicine at Charlotte Maxeke, including liquid nitrogen, which is the standard treatment used in cryotherapy for minor skin cancers. On 17 July 2026, liquid nitrogen was finally made available in the Dermatology Department, allowing patients to receive long-overdue treatment.
The DA welcomes this development and sees it as a victory for patients who, in the first place, were not supposed to wait months for a basic, clinically indicated treatment because of failures in procurement and stock management.
The relief expressed by patients and healthcare professionals underscores the human cost of poor planning and administrative failures. One patient, who had waited almost a year for treatment, personally thanked the DA for our role in ensuring that she finally received the treatment she had been denied for a very long time.
While this outcome is encouraging, it should never have required external intervention. The Gauteng Department of Health must ensure that all public hospitals maintain adequate stock levels of essential medicines, strengthen supply chain management, and prevent patients from being denied treatment because of preventable shortages.
A DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government would ensure that all public hospitals maintain adequate stock levels of essential medicines, strengthen supply chain management, and hold officials accountable for stock failures.
Patients deserve timely access to treatment, not delays caused by administrative incompetence.