SA's health recovery underway after deep scars left by Mbeki's Aids denial
Those eulogising the 'good old days', when former president Thabo Mbeki was at South Africa's helm, would do well to have a good look at the latest national life expectancy figures released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA).
In 2025, life expectancy of men is 64 years and for women it is 69. In 2002, by comparison, life expectancy was 52 for men and 57 for women.
Those numbers explain the devastating impact Mbeki's Aids denialism – coupled with his fight against the use of antiretroviral drugs – had on ordinary people afflicted by the HIV virus.
People died in their hundreds of thousands.
Another event which had a hard-hitting impact on South African life expectancy was the Covid pandemic, which saw drops for males of three years (from 62.8 to 59.8) and 3.6 years for females (from 68.8 to 65.2).
StatsSA says that as public health programmes expand and treatment coverage improves, particularly among women of reproductive age, the country's long-term outlook continues to stabilise.
ALSO READ: South Africans living longer: Here's the life expectancy rate in 2025
The good news is that progress in health care has also resulted in major improvements in child survival.
The infant mortality rate declined dramatically, from 61.9 deaths per 1 000 live births in 2002 to 23.1 in 2025.
In the same period, the death rate among children under the age of five went down to 26.1 child deaths per 1 000 live births from 79.9 per 1 000 live births.
And despite what many critics claim is our tendency to have too many children, StatsSA figures show the fertility rate has been declining over the years.
That is unusual for a developing country and different from the trend in many African countries.
Coupled with an increasing population of older people, the declining birth rate will mean headaches for social planners – for things like pensions and health care – in the future.
NOW READ: South Africans are living longer and need to plan for longer retirement – here's how
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