The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) extends its deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the child, family, loved ones and comrades of Thato Moncho.
We recognise, with humility and respect, that behind the public courage and the political struggle was a family living with pain, fear and loss. No statement, no campaign, and no victory can replace a mother, a daughter, or a sister. We hope the family finds some comfort in knowing that Thato’s courage forced the truth into the open and gave voice to thousands of patients who were suffering in silence.
SAFTU honours Thato first and foremost as a human being, a mother who loved her child deeply, and who spoke not only for herself, but for many others who could no longer speak.
Thato Moncho did not die quietly
Thato was not only fighting cancer. She was fighting corruption, indifference and institutional neglect — and she did so with dignity and courage until the very end.
When Thato Moncho gave her testimony at a public symposium convened by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, held in remembrance of Babita Deokaran’s courageous fight against corruption in health, she spoke with devastating clarity about the lived reality of cancer patients abandoned by the public healthcare system.
“I called the MEC of Health and the CEO, begging them for radiation. And they simply told me to fall onto the queue, because there was nothing much they could do.”
That “queue” has become, for too many working-class families, a waiting list for death.
A national emergency, measured in lives lost every day
South Africa loses more than 60 000 people each year to cancer — an average of 170 to 180 deaths every single day, according to the World Health Organisation / IARC GLOBOCAN cancer mortality estimates.
Cervical cancer alone kills one woman every hour, despite being preventable and treatable if detected and treated on time — a fact repeatedly raised by the Cancer Alliance and the Treatment Action Campaign in public advocacy and litigation.
As Thato testified:
“Treasury allocated R784 million. That money was supposed to treat cancer patients on the backlog list. It never happened. I’m saying this because I was on that list.”
Instead of treatment, patients were given excuses. Instead of care, they were given silence.
“I am standing here having been told that I am no longer eligible for radiation because I am now a statistic.”
This is not an accident. It is systemic and preventable failure. Corruption and neglect are killing cancer patients
Thato named the reality without euphemism:
“Patients are sitting on waiting lists and dying because of the corruption that is happening in the Department of Health.”
She described how funds were announced, shifted and appealed, while patients were turned away daily:
“The MEC said the money was with her — and yet there was no treatment for patients. Many patients are being turned away every single day. There is no simple chemo. There is no simple test.”
Broken radiotherapy machines, non-functional CT and MRI scanners, unpaid suppliers, frozen posts — all translate into one outcome: avoidable death.
“The MRI is broken. The CT scan is not working. The patient waited for a month and then died. There is no accountability. Nothing.”
If this is Gauteng, imagine rural South Africa. If this level of collapse exists in Gauteng, the province with the greatest concentration of tertiary hospitals and specialists, the situation in rural provinces is far worse.
Rural patients face:
• vast distances to oncology services,
• transport costs they cannot afford,
• late diagnosis as the norm,
• and referral systems that simply fail.
This is how inequality kills — slowly and silently.
History is repeating itself. South Africa has been here before.
During the era of HIV/AIDS denialism, an estimated over 300 000 people died preventable deaths because the state delayed action and resisted accountability. Today, cancer patients are once again dying while government appeals court rulings instead of complying with them.
Thato captured this moral collapse with painful clarity:
“Why do you have to appeal the court case? She said she doesn’t want to go to jail by admitting guilt. What guilt? Yes — you are guilty of killing us.”
A mother’s grief, a nation’s responsibility
Thato spoke not only as an activist, but as a mother:
“I am dying. I am not going to be able to see my child grow. Many patients do not see their children grow.”
No humane society can accept this as normal. No democratic state can defend this as policy.
A plea to workers, women, men and all of society
SAFTU echoes Thato’s plea, respectfully and urgently:
“Can we, as people on the ground, as NGOs, as public servants, stand up and fight the corruption that is happening in this country? Because it is killing us.” Do not wait until this happens to your sister or brother. Do not wait until it is your wife, husband, parent or child. Cancer does not wait. Grief does not wait. And justice delayed is justice denied.
In Thato Moncho’s name, SAFTU commits
Guided by engagements with the Cancer Alliance and the Treatment Action Campaign, SAFTU commits to:
• strengthening joint monitoring of oncology waiting lists and broken equipment,
• supporting litigation to enforce court orders, not allow them to be appealed into meaninglessness,
• campaigning for an urgent national cervical cancer strategy,
• and confronting austerity and corruption as root causes of collapsing public healthcare.
A final word to Thato’s family
To Thato’s child and family:
SAFTU offers not slogans, but solidarity, respect and remembrance. We hope you know that her courage has already saved lives by forcing the truth into the open. Her voice will continue to protect others, even as you grieve her loss.
Thato Moncho did not die in silence. She spoke with love, truth and courage. Her voice now belongs to history — and to the working class.
A statement was issued on behalf of the SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
newtonm@saftu.org.za
0661682157
