Northern Cape’s only public paediatric oncologist leaves Kimberley
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Spotlight (NSP)
Paediatric oncologist Liezl du Plessis has left Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe public hospital in Kimberley after eight years, ending her work as the Northern Cape province’s only public specialist in childhood cancers. She now works in the private sector in Pretoria and attributes her departure to exhaustion and failings in the public health system, according to Spotlight.
Dr Liezl du Plessis, the first and only public-sector paediatric oncologist in South Africa’s Northern Cape province, has left Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberley after eight years of service. Since February, she has been working in the private sector in Pretoria, her home town, Spotlight reports in an interview published on 30 October 2026.
Du Plessis says her departure resulted from mounting difficulties and exhaustion, rather than a single incident. In Kimberley, she had to take blood samples from her young patients to the laboratory herself to ensure they were processed and the results reached her.
The doctor also describes deteriorating hospital maintenance and a lack of support from services needed to care for children and adolescents with cancer. She says the daily difficulties she encountered in the public health system left a lasting impression on her.
