A fire in a hospital is obviously an extremely serious matter. Patients and staff of Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital had to be relocated, some of them at great risk to their health. The people of Johannesburg, already subject to a struggling health service – infamous for its long queues, crowded wards – and the impact of Covid-19 are denied access to a major hospital that is supposed to service a large section of the city’s population, especially those who are not on private medical schemes. The students, staff and residents in Mowbray, Cape Town and beyond have been terrorised by ...