A good week for Karen Hofman
Prof Karen Hofman, a tireless campaigner against big tobacco and big sugar, received the South African Medical Research Council’s (SAMRC’s) platinum lifetime achievement award — its top accolade — for her scientific contributions to policy and clinical practice. She recently retired as director of the SAMRC/Wits Centre for Health Economics & Decision Science, a research-to-policy unit where she worked for 30 years on global public health and in shaping salt and sugar content legislation. She helped set priorities in health investments, child health and the commercial determinants of health, focusing on food and beverage policies.
A bad week for Cyril Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa learnt a hard lesson last week in not leaving things until the last minute. He was due to fly from Joburg to Cape Town on Wednesday morning for the budget — and an urgent cabinet meeting preceding it. But his flight was cancelled when a broken windshield was discovered on the air force plane. He had to fly commercial — with no business class! — and missed the cabinet meeting where he had been expected to provide support for his beleaguered finance minister, facing a revolt over an increase in VAT.
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