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Newly appointed director general (DG) of the Health Department, Dr. Sandile Buthelezi, said joining the department in the midst of a pandemic felt like joining a moving train, but he was ready to add value.
Buthelezi’s appointment was confirmed by the cabinet on Wednesday.
Speaking to News24, shortly after his appointment was announced Thursday, he said the health department needed all hands on deck in its effort to combat Covid-19.
“I am excited … specifically, I think it is a difficult time to join the department, but I think the department needs all hands on deck,” he said.
While he joked that he is “scared” of taking over the reins as South Africa fights against the spread of Covid-19, he said he assured him that the government has so far had a measured response.
“We really need to take our hats off to the president and the administration minister. You are joining a response that is well managed,” Buthelezi said.
On Thursday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said there were 12,739 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 238 deaths.
Buthelezi is taking over as interim CEO Anban Pillay, who had been in office since November last year when Malebona Matsoso left office after almost a decade.
“We are joining a moving train and one is ready to jump and add value to that,” he said.
History of working with HIV
Buthelezi has a long history with Mkhize, from when the minister was the MEC for health in KwaZulu-Natal and later as prime minister in that province.
The couple worked closely together to cope with the HIV and TB pandemics in the early 2000s in the province.
“We will use our own experience specifically in managing HIV over the years … I think we can learn some lessons about that in the way we manage [Covid-19], particularly as we move to community-based assessments, collecting access points and following up on contacts, “he said.
In the late 1990s, Buthelezi, who is from Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, ran the Nkandla Hospital and later the Grays Hospital in Pietermaritzburg.
Read: SA beyond Covid-19: how it will shape the future, according to scientists, economists, and political minds
He served for 10 years as the provincial head of KwaZulu-Natal’s strategic health programs, covering HIV, tuberculosis, maternal and women’s health, nutrition and communicable diseases.
“Actually, what I’ve been doing with HIV, tuberculosis and communicable diseases has been literally for most of my career,” Buthelezi said.
In 2010, Buthelezi left the public health system and moved to New York, where he was Country Director for South Africa for ICAP at Columbia University, among other international programs.
At the time he was appointed Director General of the Health Department, he had been the CEO of the National AIDS Council of South Africa since 2017.
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