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Sasha Stevenson, the executive director of SECTION27, has been at the forefront of healthcare rights in South Africa, helping countless migrants access medical care when public facilities refused to help them.

Stevenson’s involvement in healthcare rights began when she joined SECTION27 in 2012, where she worked on “migration and health” cases, including the story of a Zimbabwean man who was denied access to a hospital for a colostomy bag change due to his foreign status. Stevenson found that South African law provides protection to migrants who need access to healthcare services, especially for emergency treatment.

She wrote to the hospital’s admissions department, and the barrier was removed in that instance and many subsequent cases. However, getting systemic change proved elusive, as the law was good, but implementation was the problem.

Early Life and Education

Stevenson spent her earliest years in London, where her family waited for the outcome of the 1992 referendum before returning to South Africa. She attended Rivonia Primary and later St Stithians Girls’ College, where she excelled at rowing and debating, which steered her towards law.

Stevenson went on to study law at Rhodes University, where she was exposed to constitutionalism and human rights, and later earned a master’s in law at Cambridge. Her experience at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2011 convinced her that international law was not for her, citing “too much politics.”

Instead, she found her passion in using the law to make a difference in people’s lives, particularly in the area of healthcare rights.

Litigation and Advocacy

Stevenson has taken on some of South Africa’s most consequential health and rights cases, including the Life Esidimeni psychiatric patient deaths and the National Health Insurance Act. She believes that litigation is the last option and that judgments require repeated follow-up and years of monitoring to ensure government compliance.

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Stevenson cites the example of the judgment handed down by Judge Gerrit Muller in the trial of the tragic death of Michael Komape, where the court ordered the Limpopo government to get rid of all unsafe sanitation in schools. They ultimately implemented the plan, demonstrating that judgments can still have an impact when combined with persistence and effort.

Her approach to litigation is not to seek confrontation but to find solutions that benefit all parties involved.

Challenges and Concerns

Stevenson expresses concern about the challenges facing civil society organizations, including funding shortages and a lack of expertise. She notes that there are only a handful of lawyers in the sector with more than ten years of experience, which is problematic for remaining effective.

The fight over the government’s National Health Insurance plans is a significant challenge, with the project mired in lawfare and civil society’s attempts to ensure it delivers much-needed health sector reform essentially stuck. Stevenson has been personally working on NHI issues since 2013 and is worried about civil society’s ability to stay the course in the face of government and private medical aids.

Despite these challenges, Stevenson remains committed to using the law to make a difference in people’s lives, particularly in the area of healthcare rights.

She stands outside her home, awaiting her guest’s Uber.

Stevenson comments on the plane trees towering above, which were once thought to be under threat from the polyphagous shot hole borer. The fact that the trees are thriving serves as a reminder that even in the face of adversity, there is always hope for a positive outcome.