For weeks, the family of 15-year-old Nande Mdingi says they have lived through every caregiver’s nightmare, watching a vulnerable child’s condition deteriorate while desperately searching for answers inside one of Gauteng’s most embattled public hospitals.
Admitted to Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital on March 31 Nande, who has a compromised immune system, should have been on a path toward recovery. Instead, his family alleges his hospital stay became a traumatic ordeal marked by uncertainty, delays and mounting fear as his condition worsened over weeks.
Earlier this week, the Saturday Star received an urgent plea from Trysie Capel, a close family friend, who described a family pushed to the brink as they watched Nande fight for his life.
“I am on my way to the hospital to go and see what is happening at Tembisa Hospital. Nande has been in ICU for over a month now. The doctors haven’t come to the party. They haven’t told me exactly what his problem is, and because of that, nothing has improved. If anything, things are getting worse.
“Today, he is really not well. He is really not well, and I’m hoping, please, that if you could do anything, just anything, to try and see if we can get him the help he needs.
“They initially said he had meningitis, then they diagnosed him with vasculitis, but they still won’t tell us exactly what they’re giving him.”
Nande’s grandmother, Mavis Mbucane, who has remained by his side throughout the ordeal, says her focus remains on one thing: bringing him home.
“I am his grandmother. He is my whole heart. I want him to get better and come home.”
Responding to questions from the Saturday Star, Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson Steve Mabona said the child remains under specialist care and defended the treatment being provided.
“We can confirm the admission of a 15-year-old child at Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital. He has been receiving multi-disciplinary quality care and decisions on treatment were done by specialists accordingly,” Mabona said.
“There have been regular meetings between the grandmother, who is the next of kin, and the treating doctors since the patient was admitted, and these have been documented. Regular updates regarding the patient’s condition are sent to the grandmother.”
But amid the anguish, there is now a glimmer of hope.
After repeated follow-ups, Nande’s family says they have begun to notice encouraging changes in recent days, particularly after the Saturday Star contacted the Health Department for comment. Capel, who visited Nande yesterday said he remains critically ill but has shown slight signs of improvement following changes to his medication. They said he appeared weak, with visible shaking and clenched fists, and at times seemed to be in pain, although there were “small improvements” compared with earlier in the week.
Still, the questions surrounding his treatment have reignited broader concerns about patient care and conditions at a hospital that has repeatedly found itself at the centre of controversy.
While Nande’s family says recent improvements have given them renewed hope, his case has once again placed the hospital under intense scrutiny.
Civil society organisation, We Are South Africans, which has also been at the forefront of advocating for Nande, says the teenager’s experience reflects a broader pattern of distressing complaints emerging from public hospitals.
“This is not an isolated incident,” said Gilbert Martin, founder of the organisation.
We receive harrowing reports of patient neglect, unhygienic conditions and administrative indifference from public hospitals on an hourly basis.
“While we deeply understand the severe strain placed on our dedicated doctors and the immense overloading of our frontline nurses, the current system is broken and must be entirely overhauled.”
"The focus must return entirely to our own people, ensuring South African citizens are provided with the proper, dignified healthcare services they are constitutionally owed."
The organisation is now calling for an immediate provincial investigation into the hospital’s management, as well as a transparent review of Nande’s treatment plan.
The concerns come amid growing political pressure over the state of Tembisa Hospital, with Jack Bloom recently calling for an urgent “rescue mission” at the facility.
“The Democratic Alliance in Gauteng is demanding a rescue mission for Tembisa Hospital after the Gauteng Health Department’s poor response to my exposé of its huge vacancies and equipment shortages,” Bloom said.
He said only 40 of 213 vacant posts are currently being filled, excluding key leadership roles, while shortages of essential medical equipment, including ventilators, continue to place patients at risk.
“The Department has terribly neglected this hospital despite the loss of more than R2 billion paid to fake companies for undelivered goods and services,” Bloom said.
For many observers, Nande’s case is not an isolated tragedy, but another symptom of a public healthcare system under mounting pressure.
Last year, the Saturday Star reported on a crippling linen shortage at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, where surgeries were disrupted and patient care compromised, exposing yet another fault line in Gauteng’s strained public health system.
The newspaper also previously reported on growing concerns over South Africa’s shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, with research by Professor Fathima Paruk, head of Critical Care at the University of Pretoria, warning that the country’s ICU capacity remains far below international standards.
At the time, Paruk said hospitals would face increasing pressure as demand for critical care continues to outpace available resources.
“Hospitals will need more ICU beds as patients live longer,” she said.
“Intensive care saves lives, but it requires trained staff, technology, and resources that many hospitals simply don’t have. The demand is growing faster than the system’s ability to respond.”
She also highlighted the severe shortage of specialist staff needed to run ICU units effectively.
“You can’t run an ICU bed without nurses and doctors who are trained in critical care, and we are extremely short of them in both the public and private sectors.”
Responding at the time, Foster Mohale said national planning takes both public and private ICU capacity into account, but acknowledged that bed numbers alone are not enough to address the crisis.
“Beds alone are not enough, intensive care requires highly trained specialists, and patients are often stabilised in smaller hospitals before transfer to facilities with ICU capacity,” Mohale said.
The story has also drawn attention from former Springbok prop Tendai Mtawarira, who sent a message wishing Nande a swift recovery and offering words of support to the family as they continue to hold on to hope during his recovery journey.
Saturday Star
