Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has relaunched the South African Tuberculosis Caucus to strengthen the fight against TB. The platform aims to unite political leaders in advancing the national response to the disease. This move supports the Department of Health's goal to test five million people annually.
On Tuesday, 28 October 2025, Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi announced the relaunch of the South African Tuberculosis (TB) Caucus. The caucus serves as a platform for members of Parliament and provincial legislatures to champion the response to TB in the country. Motsoaledi described it as a bridge between political leadership, the health sector, and communities.
“Our success as a country will be gauged by reduced mortality, increased treatment success and restored dignity for every South African living with or affected by TB,” Motsoaledi said.
The SA TB Caucus was first launched in 2018, following the creation of the Global TB Caucus in 2014, which Motsoaledi co-chaired. However, it had "silently disappeared" in the years since. “Today, we are reforming it and asking members of Parliament, this time around, please don’t let it disappear,” he urged.
This relaunch aligns with the Department of Health’s End TB Campaign, targeting five million TB tests in 2025/26. Last week, on 24 October 2025, the department partnered with the National Health Laboratory Service and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases to launch a public dashboard tracking real-time TB testing data. Since April 2025, 1.76 million people have been tested, reaching 60.7% of the 2.9 million target to date, with about 89,000 diagnosed with TB.
Motsoaledi highlighted TB's underappreciated threat: “It’s very difficult for many people to accept the fact… that TB is the biggest killer among all the infectious diseases. We’re not scared of it like we’re scared of all the other pandemics… and I once mentioned that the reason is that TB is not a drama queen.” He emphasized the campaign's scale: “We have launched an anti-TB campaign where we must test five million people for tuberculosis annually. Test them and put them on treatment every year. This is a mammoth task.”
Acting chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health, Tembalam Xego, called the relaunch a “call to action,” stressing involvement from all government divisions, sectors, and communities across political and provincial lines. Russell Rensburg, director of the Rural Health Advocacy Project, noted, “to end TB, we have to find TB,” praising the dashboard for tracking testing in key areas. He added, “Nothing can be more debilitating than living with a disease or dying from a disease that’s both treatable and curable.”
TB remains South Africa's leading cause of death, claiming about 56,000 lives yearly. The caucus aims to foster political accountability and unite officials to expand healthcare rights. Motsoaledi is set to address the National Assembly later that day on collaborative efforts against the disease.