Healthcare in Exile: ANC Health Policy and Health Care Provision in MK Camps, 1964 to 1989

Abstract

The ANC's early health provisions that in 1977 culminated in a bureaucratised Department of Health were critical for the survival of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres and the ANC's exile movement more generally. This article examines how the relationship between the medical sector and the military changed throughout the time that the ANC and MK were in exile while indicating instances where they influenced each other. While the Health Department's relationship with the military was never severed, the strength of the relationship fluctuated considerably from the early formation of the medical sector to the greater establishment of an institutionalised Health Department.