Pregnant women sleeping  on thin blankets on the cold, hard floor of Dora Nginza Hospital; surgeons, doctors and other medical staff picking up brooms and mops in desperation to help clean the hospitals or stepping in during their off-time to help the overwhelmed nursing staff — this is the reality at the state facilities in Port Elizabeth.

At Livingstone, the situation is equally dire, according to a doctor at the Korsten facility, who said the Covid-19 crisis had exposed Bhisho’s long-time chronic neglect of state hospitals...