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200 Young South African 2013
The Mail & Guardian’s annual feature of eminent 200 Young South Africans
has become a hallmark of our calendar.
It is one of the most popular editions of the M&G, but it has earned significance
far beyond our newsroom. A listing in the 200 Young South Africans supplement
is now a feature of the best CVs in the country.
Every year since 2006, we’ve featured 200 young South Africans, on course to
touch the world with their greatness. It is not an award as much as it is a mark
of distinction — a number of young people featured have since grown into
leaders in their fields. This is a celebration of excellence as much at is a
directory of future leaders.
We begin by inviting nominations from the public, of people between the ages
of 18-35, and we received over 6 000 nominations in 2019.
Dalene von Delft
Tuberculosis Activist
When 30-year-old Dalene von Delft was still a medical student she contracted multi-drug-resistant
tuberculosis (MDR-TB), probably from constant exposure to patients with the disease, although she cannot
be sure about that.
Von Delft, already facing the prospect of death, also began to lose
her hearing. By the time she was taking 30 tablets a day she was
swallowing back her own vomit to keep the pills down.
The treatment was harder to bear than the disease and there was
always the threat of sudden death as a side effect. It was then that
she applied for compassionate access to a drug called Bedaquiline,
which she saw as her only chance.
The drug cured her TB and now, as a full-time emergency-room
doctor she uses her spare time to press for the drug to be made
available to all TB sufferers. Along with her husband, and with
some fellow MDR-TB sufferers, she founded a group called TB
Proof
The group, which includes people who have been affected by TB,
either themselves or through loved ones, does advocacy work
locally and abroad, informing people about Bedaquiline and the
need to make it available in South Africa.
Earlier this year, through USaid in Washington, DC, TB Proof was awarded the Centre for Global Health and Diplomacy
Award for distinguished work in the field of global health diplomacy. Von Delft is a member of a growing global movement
to bring MDR-TB into the media spotlight. The disease recently made the cover of Time magazine. In the meantime, Von
Delft and TB Proof have been holding teaching sessions with most of the medical and allied health students at the
universities of Stellenbosch (where she lives with her husband) and Cape Town, educating them about the risks of
contracting TB and how to protect themselves.
— Ilham Rawoot