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[FILE IMAGE]: Doctors perform surgery on a patient in a public health hospital as part of the Surgical Marathon initiative in honour of Mandela Day, 2025.
Gauteng’s public hospitals performed over 800 surgical procedures in just 12 hours. The Gauteng health department says the third edition of the Mandela Day Surgical Marathon Initiative, surpassed last year’s total of 742 surgeries by 64.
This year, surgical procedures focused on critical specialties such as cleft palate repair, cataract surgery, colostomy reversal and prostate procedures amongst others.
The massive operation took place across 29 public health facilities yesterday.
Gauteng Health MEC, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko says the surgical marathon will continue up until the end of the month.
“This work that we are doing is over and above what we always do on surgeries, because all the hospitals committed to do a lot of work. As we speak, they are continuing with that work. It has not stopped and it will continue for the whole month. Towards the end of the month, on the last day of July, we will come and give you a statement of the work that we have done in all the institutions. It will be a consolidated report. For now, we are happy because the numbers are growing and we’ve already surpassed last year’s target, which is exciting for us and for the team,” says Nkomo-Ralehoko.
In the spirit of service and dedication to healthcare, Gauteng public hospitals on Friday successfully performed 806 surgical procedures as at 19:00 in a process that ran for 12 hours across 29 institution as part of the third edition of #MandelaDay2025 #GPSurgicalMarathon. pic.twitter.com/rmWKT8EFnw
— Gauteng Health (@GautengHealth) July 19, 2025
