DA calls for probe into heart surgery deaths at Charlotte Maxeke
DA says overseas, if the mortality rate reaches 2%, an emergency investigation is launched.
Black News 
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) to urgently investigate high mortality rates linked to heart surgery procedures at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
The party has raised concerns over patient deaths and complications in the hospital’s Cardiothoracic Department.
DA Gauteng Health spokesperson Dr Jack Bloom addressed a media briefing outside the University in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
Today, Dr Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health led a strong protest outside Wits University, highlighting the unacceptably high mortality and morbidity rates in the Cardiothoracic Department at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital which is managed by university and the Gauteng… pic.twitter.com/fUfoMolVbK
— Democratic Alliance Gauteng Legislature (@DA_GPL) June 4, 2026
“Their admitted 14% mortality rate last year is scandalously high. In leading overseas cardiac centres, mortality rates exceeding 2% to 3% would trigger an immediate formal inquiry. Here, we have an admitted 14% mortality rate for heart surgery. Overseas, if the rate reaches 2%, an emergency investigation is launched. Yet here, nobody seems to care, and I think that’s the most disturbing part of all,” says Dr Bloom.
He says they also report morbidity figures for heart patients, which are similarly high. The morbidity rate was 22% last year, with comparable percentages recorded in previous years.
