The train delivering healthcare - 16th July 2021

A train has pulled into South Africa’s Dube station, not for waiting passengers, but rather patients. Today, its load of primary healthcare will benefit residents of the famous Soweto township.

The train is equipped with instruments and gear for optometry, dentistry, general medicine and even psychology. It also carries its own pharmacy.

One of hundreds who have arrived seeking medical help, hard up law student Retshephile Mosena has suffered with eyesight problems for two years.

Restshepile Mosena: "Glasses are really expensive! Eye tests are expensive and the glasses are even more expensive, so I couldn't really afford them at the time, ja. So I was kind of saving up to buy glasses for myself, but this opportunity came up and I took it."

Despite being Africa’s most developed economy, South Africa still has widespread poverty and spiralling unemployment. These circumstances leave many without access to healthcare, making on board medics, like optometrist Thompho Sadiki, some people’s first contact with health services.

Thompho Sadiki: "It's, it’s, it’s great, it's great. Some, sometimes you, you, you, you can even hear it from the, you know, from the heart when you are helping someone who, who has never been exposed to, to health service. Then you can see – well yeah – you have done something for, for, for someone, yes."

The service, named Phelophepa, meaning ‘good, clean health’ in the Tswana and Sotho languages, is active for 9 months every year. It’s run by state logistics company Transnet and commenced operations in 1994. In this landmark year when apartheid finally ended, its three carriages only provided optometry care.

However, it now pulls 19 coaches providing access to a range of quality healthcare services. And yet, according to acting train manager Thelma Sateka, there’s more to be done.

Thelma Sateke: "Well, the hundred percent health coverage is, is still not about to be reached any time soon. So, the train still has a lot to do in that regard to bring the services to the rural areas, where services are non-existent at some point or, or they are very rare."