September 15, 2025
Get your ticket! Who Owns South Africa? | Private Healthcare
Join Open Secrets for the second instalment of the Who Owns South Africa (WOSA) investigative series on 30 September at 6pm at the Homecoming Centre. This edition turns the spotlight on Private Healthcare: Medical Aids and Private Hospitals.
South Africa’s healthcare sector is marred by deep rooted inequalities, with millions relying on an overly strained and under resourced public healthcare system. In this installment of Who Owns South Africa, we turn the spotlight on to the role of private players in the health care system and show how the concentration of private power shapes the sector.
Healthcare has been transformed from an essential social service into an asset that can be sold to and traded by global and local financial investors. Volume 2 of WOSA exposes the largest owners of private hospitals and private medical aids, how they profit from the status quo, and how their dominance perpetuates inequality. We also reflect on the introduction of National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, a debate which has dominated South Africa’s political landscape in recent years.
Speakers: Zen Mathe and Luthando Vilakazi will be joined by Fatima Hassan, the founder of the Health Justice Initiative, in conversation with Luvano Ntuli to unpack who profits from private ownership in the healthcare system and what this means for ordinary South Africans.
Book your ticket
Luvano Ntuli
Investigator- Open Secrets
Luvano is an Investigator at Open Secrets. She holds an MPhil in Justice and Transformation from the University of Cape Town, where she is also currently a Junior Research Fellow. She is a writer who is interested in the intersection of memory, structural inequality, transitional and gender justice.
Fatima Hassan
Founder of Health Justice Initiative
Fatima is a human rights lawyer and social justice activist. She is the founder of the Health Justice Initiative (HJI). Among others, she is the recipient of the 2022 Calgary Peace Prize and is a 2023 Echoing Green Fellow.
She has dedicated her professional life to defending and promoting human rights in South Africa, especially in the health field. She holds a BA and LL.B from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and an LL.M from Duke University. She clerked at the Constitutional Court of South Africa; served as Ministerial Advisor in two portfolios; and headed the Open Society Foundations in SA for 6 years. She has previously served on several NGO and other Boards, and currently serves on the Advisory Group for Resolve to Save Lives and the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health Partner Advisory Board. She is an Honorary Research Associate at the UCT School of Public Health & Family Medicine.
Zen Mathe
Investigator- Open Secrets
Zen Mathe is an Investigator at Open Secrets. She contributes to investigative research across all the organisation’s thematic areas. She has a keen interest in promoting justice and holding perpetrators of corruption and economic crime accountable. Her investigative work has included focusing on private sector entities, such as Bain & Company. She is passionate about Sustainable Development and climate justice, and her work has involved being the project lead and co-author for reports such as, The Climate Consultants: How Management Consultants Cash in on the Climate Crisis and Who Has the Power: South Africa’s Energy Profiteers. As an advocate for civil society partnerships and collaboration, Zen has also worked in leading the organisation’s efforts in coordinating the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture (CSWG) from 2019 to 2024. Zen holds a BA International Studies degree from Stellenbosch University and a Postgraduate in Sustainable Development from the Sustainability Institute, at Stellenbosch University’s School of Public Leadership. She previously worked as a postgraduate researcher at the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST), where she engaged in research around State Capture and governance issues.
Luthando Vilakazi
Lawyer- Open Secrets
Luthando Vilakazi is a legal professional whose work bridges the worlds of law, social justice, and sustainability. She obtained her LLB from the University of Cape Town, where she developed a strong interest in the legal frameworks governing natural resources and environmental protection. She went on to complete her articles with a particular focus on corporate mining and environmental law, gaining first-hand insight into the intersection of commercial imperatives, regulatory compliance and environmental stewardship. At Open Secrets, Luthando’s work tackles the ways in which corporate greed plays a significant role in state capture, international criminal conduct and environmental harm.
