A team of UKZN specialists tackle elective surgery backlog during Mandela Week.
A UNIVERSITY of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) urology team treated 74 patients during the KwaZulu-Natal leg of the 2026 African Synergy Health (ASH) Mandela Week Surgical Marathon, contributing more than a third of the campaign's national target of treating at least 200 patients by the end of Mandela Month.
The operations were carried out over five days, from July 6 to 10, at the Victoria Mxenge-St Aidan's Hospital Tertiary Complex in Durban and Ngwelezana Provincial Tertiary Hospital in Empangeni.
The surgeries included procedures to correct congenital birth defects, reconstruct damaged urethras, and remove kidneys or testes affected by cancer.
The initiative focused on patients who had been waiting for elective surgery in the public healthcare system. Some patients underwent multiple procedures during the surgical marathon, although the total number of operations has yet to be finalised.
