Cancer care, close to home: a R416 million (about $25 million) oncology centre opens in Mthatha

For a family in South Africa's rural Eastern Cape, a cancer diagnosis used to mean a second hardship on top of the first: long journeys to East London or Gqeberha for radiation treatment, and weeks away from home while it lasted. That changed this week, when a new R416 million (about $25 million) oncology centre opened at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha, officially launched by Premier Oscar Mabuyane and Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa. The centre brings chemotherapy, radiotherapy and brachytherapy — a treatment that places the radiation source right at the tumour — under one roof, with two advanced radiotherapy machines and 68 beds: 30 for women, 30 for men and eight for children. It will serve four districts — OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo, Chris Hani and Joe Gqabi — and the building has even been designed to grow, with room for two more floors when demand rises.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: infrastructure build