Rural Health Conference 2025: Voices, activism, and action for equity
With the theme ‘Rural Health in Real Life’, the 28th Rural Health Conference brought together health professionals, policymakers, researchers, and communities, to once again tackle the urgent challenges of rural healthcare in South Africa.
Building on decades of gatherings, the conference was held over three days and created space for honest dialogue, powerful storytelling, and bold visions for a more just health system.
In his opening remarks, Mr J Mndebele, Chief Director of Health in KwaZulu-Natal, stressed the need for a sustainable, coordinated, and community-based health system to achieve universal access to care. His address set the tone for a conference that consistently highlighted rural realities and the policies required to shift them.
Delivering the Rural Rehab keynote, Dr Kate Sherry laid bare the immense barriers rural patients face in accessing healthcare. For many households, transport to a hospital can consume nearly all their monthly income. Beyond finances, patients must mobilise childcare, elder care, or borrow resources from neighbours simply to make a single clinic visit. Sherry emphasised that the hidden costs of healthcare are too often invisible in policy debates, yet they shape the lived experience of rural communities daily.
RHAP’s Zimbini Madikiza and Judiac Ranape facilitated a compelling panel on Uniting Voices for Health Equity: Strengthening Community-Oriented Primary Health Care in Rural Ntabankulu, Eastern Cape. This session showcased how public health interventions, when designed with community input, can strengthen the foundations of primary healthcare. Panellists emphasised the importance of giving rural residents platforms to articulate their needs and experiences.
Dr Ndiviwe Mphothulo delivered the RUDASA keynote on The Role of Medical Doctors as Activists in South Africa. Reflecting on the profession’s long history of social justice, he reminded delegates that medicine and politics have always been linked. He called on today’s generation of doctors to embrace advocacy, bravery, mentorship, and collective action, insisting that South Africa still needs medical activists to drive transformation.
The conference also honoured outstanding health workers: Dr Andy Wilkins received the RUDASA Award for Rural Doctor of the Year, Dr Sarah Wilkins, Susan-Janes Visser and Boitumelo Sekoena were recognised with the RURESA Therapists of the year awards. Noxolo Butshingi, and community healthcare worker Vuyokazi Ngceba were honoured with the RUNURSA Award. Aviwe Palesa Mgobozi received the PACASA award.
Throughout the conference, sessions explored rural workforce shortages, the importance of accountability, and innovations that are already reshaping rural service delivery. The collective message was clear: rural communities cannot wait any longer for equity in healthcare. RHC 2025 ended as it began, with a call to action. Achieving universal health coverage in South Africa depends on bold policy, collaborative partnerships, and the unwavering voices of rural people themselves.
See pictures of the week below:
