A critically ill Zimbabwean teenager has been denied a potentially life-saving liver transplant at a South African public hospital due to her immigration status. Vanessa Mafu, 15, who suffers from liver cirrhosis caused by autoimmune hepatitis, cannot access the deceased donor waiting list without South African documentation.
The girl’s mother, Vuyelwa Ncube, has launched an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court against Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, national health and home affairs ministers, the Gauteng health MEC, and a treating doctor.
“This application is urgent and cannot wait… my daughter is extremely unwell,” Ncube stated in court documents. “Her condition is so dire and exigent that the matter cannot wait.”
Mafu was diagnosed in December 2024 and has experienced rapidly deteriorating health since then. While doctors mentioned the possibility of receiving a liver from a living donor, her mother argues this option is significantly more difficult to arrange.
“My daughter has a reasonable apprehension of imminent death,” Ncube’s affidavit reads.
Advocate Simba Chitando, leading the family’s legal team, condemned the hospital’s decision as unconstitutional and xenophobic. “This is not only a life-saving procedure but one of the most cruel and inhuman acts perpetrated by the state against a child,” he said.
The family claims they were given no legal basis for excluding non-South African children from the deceased donor waiting list. Private care remains out of reach, with transplant costs at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre estimated at R1.75 million.
Hospital officials and government representatives have not responded publicly to requests for comment on the case.
The court is expected to hear the matter on an urgent basis as medical professionals warn that Mafu’s condition continues to worsen. Health advocacy groups have expressed concern about what they describe as a pattern of healthcare exclusion affecting migrants in South Africa.
The case has sparked debate about South Africa’s obligations under both domestic and international law regarding emergency medical treatment for non-citizens, particularly vulnerable children.
