Tag: 2025

Delivered by the SayPro Royal Committee Secretary- Mary Mapula Malebe

Distinguished SayPro Leadership, Honoured Healthcare Workers, Community Leaders, Guests, and Fellow Citizens,

Good day.

As the Secretary of the SayPro Royal Committee, it is both an honour and a responsibility to speak on this significant occasion — SayPro’s 2025 National Healthcare Decisions Day.

Today, we gather not only to acknowledge the importance of healthcare, but to spotlight a vital truth: that every person has the right to understand, decide, and speak for themselves when it comes to their health. At SayPro, we believe in a future where every individual — regardless of age, income, gender, or background — is empowered to make clear and informed decisions about their own care.

As Secretary, my role is to ensure the voice of the people is documented, respected, and preserved. In healthcare, that means ensuring systems are in place that:

• Record and protect patients’ wishes and choices
• Promote clear communication between providers and patients
• Ensure every voice, especially of those who are vulnerable or often overlooked, is formally acknowledged
• Maintain transparency and trust in how healthcare decisions are made and upheld

Our communities have often suffered in silence — not because they lack opinions, but because they lack platforms. Let today serve as a national reminder that no person should ever be treated without understanding their rights, and that health systems must not only provide care — but also listen, document, and honour the choices of the people they serve.

In 2025, the SayPro Royal Committee has focused its efforts on:

• Supporting the implementation of accessible healthcare documentation in all major languages
• Encouraging families to have open conversations about health and end-of-life decisions
• Promoting legal and ethical standards that respect patient autonomy
• And engaging with government to ensure policies reflect a balance between clinical care and personal choice

We cannot claim progress if our people are still afraid to ask questions or make their voices heard in a clinic or hospital. We cannot be inclusive if we do not have systems that record and respect decisions made at every level — from the rural health post to the private hospital.

To our healthcare workers: thank you for your service — and for listening.
To our citizens: speak up. Your wishes matter.
To our leaders: protect the right to choose, and ensure that right is reflected in every system, every form, and every policy.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
May we continue to build a nation where every decision is heard, every right respected, and every voice recorded.

Thank you.

Delivered by the SayPro Royal Committee Deputy Treasurer- Jane Ndlovu

Distinguished Guests, Esteemed SayPro Leaders, Healthcare Professionals, Community Partners, and Beloved Citizens,

Good day to you all.

It is with deep gratitude and purpose that I stand before you today as the Deputy Treasurer of the SayPro Royal Committee, to mark this important occasion — National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.

This day is a powerful reminder that healthcare is not only about access to services — it is about the right to make personal, informed decisions about one’s own body, health, and future. And as the custodian of resources alongside my fellow treasury leaders, I believe that how we invest reflects what we value.

At SayPro, and particularly within the Royal Committee, we recognise that ensuring healthcare decision-making rights requires more than laws or policies — it requires resourced action. It demands that we allocate not only money, but care, attention, and priority to those who are often unheard.

In 2025, our financial priorities have focused on:

• Supporting outreach programmes to educate individuals about informed consent and patient rights
• Strengthening community health partnerships through targeted investments in rural clinics and mobile decision-support teams
• Ensuring that every budget we approve includes a line for public awareness campaigns that simplify complex healthcare information
• And advocating for funding that protects the dignity and autonomy of our elders, youth, and vulnerable groups in every medical decision they face

As Deputy Treasurer, I am especially committed to bridging the gap between resources and rights. Because it is one thing to believe people should have a voice — and another thing entirely to ensure the financial systems are in place to protect and amplify that voice.

We must always ask: Are we investing enough in trust? In training? In technology that helps patients understand and decide for themselves?

On this day, I challenge every financial planner, every donor, every official in health-related budgeting to see patient rights not as an afterthought, but as a financial priority.

To our communities: Your healthcare decisions matter. And you deserve the support, information, and space to make them.
To our healthcare providers: Thank you for honouring patient voices.
To our SayPro leaders and partners: Let us continue to fund what truly matters — people, power, and protection of rights.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
Let us be reminded that the most valuable investment is the one we make in empowering every human being to choose their path — with confidence, clarity, and dignity.

Thank you.

Delivered by the SayPro Royal Committee Treasurer – Dipuo Mildred Mamabolo

Honourable SayPro Leadership, Esteemed Healthcare Partners, Community Leaders, SayPro Members, and Friends,

Good morning to you all.

As the Treasurer of the SayPro Royal Committee, it is a great honour to address you on this important day — SayPro’s 2025 National Healthcare Decisions Day — a day that reminds us that every individual deserves not just care, but the power to choose how they receive it.

In healthcare, we often speak about medicine, treatment, and access. But just as important is the economic and resource planning behind the systems that enable those services to reach the people. And today, I speak not just as a custodian of finances, but as a voice committed to the ethical and impactful use of resources to support healthcare choice and dignity.

At SayPro, we believe that a healthcare system must be people-driven, financially responsible, and rights-focused. That is why, as part of our Royal Committee, we have made it a priority to:

• Allocate funding to community-based education programs that teach people about their health rights and options
• Ensure SayPro resources support the training of healthcare workers in ethical, patient-first practices
• Support digital tools and innovations that help individuals make informed decisions
• Fund safe spaces and forums where people can speak openly about healthcare choices without fear or shame
• And guarantee that every financial plan is guided by the principle of “value for dignity” — investing not just in systems, but in the freedom and confidence of every person to choose what is best for their health

True healthcare transformation does not come only through medicine or infrastructure. It comes when people have knowledge, trust, and power — and that includes financial power, too. Health choices should not be dictated by income, geography, or status. They should be protected as a basic human right.

Let this National Healthcare Decisions Day be a call to all leaders, all funders, and all institutions:

Let us invest not only in services — but in empowerment.
Let us finance not only buildings — but understanding and respect.
Let us budget not only for treatment — but for freedom of choice.

To our communities, know this: your right to choose is priceless. And as the Royal Committee, we pledge to protect that right — not just in words, but through every rand, every project, and every plan.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
Let us continue to build a future where every voice is funded, every choice is respected, and every life is valued.

Thank you.

Delivered by the SayPro Royal Committee Deputy Chairperson- Sapapi Johannes Mputla

Esteemed Members of the SayPro Family, Respected Health Practitioners, Honoured Guests, Community Representatives, and Friends,

Good day to you all.

It is with deep humility and a profound sense of responsibility that I address you today as the Deputy Chairperson of the SayPro Royal Committee, on this vital occasion — SayPro’s 2025 National Healthcare Decisions Day.

This day is more than symbolic. It is a moral imperative, a national reminder that behind every hospital bed, every diagnosis, and every treatment plan, there is a human being — a person with the right to choose, the right to be heard, and the right to decide what happens to their own body.

As a Royal Committee, our duty is to uphold the values of dignity, tradition, and justice. In the healthcare context, this means ensuring that no citizen is denied their voice, especially when it comes to their life and wellbeing.

In many communities, especially in under-resourced or traditional settings, the power to make health decisions is often taken out of the hands of individuals. Cultural norms, family pressure, or fear can silence people — especially women, the elderly, and the vulnerable. This must change.

At SayPro, and within our Royal Committee leadership, we believe that empowerment starts with choice. It starts with education. It starts with access. And it is protected through accountability and leadership.

In 2025, our efforts as a Royal Committee have focused on:

• Promoting health rights awareness at the grassroots level
• Engaging traditional leaders and healers to be part of the solution
• Advocating for respectful dialogue between families and patients on healthcare wishes
• Supporting policies that ensure patient voices are protected in all health systems
• And standing firm that autonomy is not a Western idea — it is a universal right

Let me be clear: choosing your healthcare path is not a privilege. It is a right. And our cultures, when truly honoured, are capable of embracing both tradition and transformation.

To our healthcare providers: let compassion guide your professionalism.
To our policymakers: build systems that protect the voiceless.
To our communities: speak up, learn your rights, and never be afraid to ask questions.
To our youth and elders alike: your decisions matter.

Let today be a beacon — a light that reminds us that development, justice, and leadership begin when we respect the will of every individual.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
From the Royal Committee, we say: we stand with the people. We stand for choice. And we stand for dignity.

Thank you.

Delivered by the SayPro Chancellor Officer- Jeffery Montapina

Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests, Esteemed SayPro Leadership, Community Champions, and Honoured Citizens,

Warm greetings to all of you on this momentous occasion — SayPro’s 2025 National Healthcare Decisions Day.

As the Chief Chancellor Officer of SayPro, it is both my duty and honour to speak not only from a position of leadership but from a place of deep respect — respect for every individual’s right to choose, to be heard, and to be treated with dignity in matters of health and life.

This day is more than a calendar event. It is a declaration — a powerful reminder that autonomy, consent, and human rights must be at the heart of every healthcare system, policy, and interaction. It is a call to leadership, to institutions, and to society to protect and uplift every person’s right to make informed, voluntary, and respected healthcare decisions.

At SayPro, we recognise that these rights do not exist in isolation. They are supported and defended by:

• Clear policies,
• Ethical governance,
• Accessible information,
• And most importantly, compassionate systems and people.

As Chancellor, I take pride in overseeing the alignment of SayPro’s governance, vision, and operations to our core values — values that centre humanity, inclusivity, and respect.

In 2025, our governance strategy for health decision empowerment has included:

• Strengthening institutional accountability mechanisms to ensure every voice matters
• Promoting ethical leadership in healthcare facilities and programmes
• Engaging religious, cultural, and traditional leaders to champion patient rights and informed consent
• And ensuring that the vulnerable — the elderly, youth, people living with disabilities — are not only included in the conversation but prioritised in it

Today, I invite us all to reflect:

• Are we building systems where people truly feel safe to make their own health choices?
• Are we removing the fear, stigma, and power imbalances that often silence decision-making?
• Are we training our leaders — at every level — to respect the sacredness of patient autonomy?

Let this day be more than a ceremony. Let it be a commitment.

A commitment to honour choices, even when they are difficult.
To listen deeply, especially when the stakes are high.
And to lead ethically, so that every healthcare decision is made with care, clarity, and courage.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
May we, as leaders and citizens, carry this spirit forward — today, and every day.

Thank you.

Delivered by the SayPro Chief Development Officer- Regaugetswe Netshiozwe

Ladies and Gentlemen, Esteemed Guests, Development Partners, SayPro Colleagues, and Respected Community Members,

Good morning.

Today, we gather in recognition of SayPro’s 2025 National Healthcare Decisions Day, a day that challenges all of us—not just to think about healthcare—but to consider the systems, services, and support networks that enable people to make decisions about their health with confidence, clarity, and dignity.

As the Chief Development Officer at SayPro, my role focuses on growth, sustainability, and impact. But development is not just about expansion or infrastructure. True development lies in human development — in building people’s ability to shape their own futures. And that begins with the power to make informed healthcare choices.

Healthcare decision-making is a development issue. Why?

Because access to health information is development.
Because a mother choosing safe childbirth care is development.
Because a teenager accessing mental health support is development.
Because an elder having a say in their end-of-life care is development.

This year, SayPro’s development priorities have focused on deepening our community-based health empowerment strategies. We have invested in:

• Building grassroots awareness programs to help individuals understand their healthcare rights
• Expanding mobile and rural outreach to ensure access to decision-making support in underserved areas
• Collaborating with development agencies and donors to fund inclusive and people-driven health literacy projects
• And scaling community health worker training, so that local champions can guide their peers through critical, and often difficult, healthcare choices

At the heart of all our development efforts is this core belief: when people are empowered to decide, development becomes sustainable.

On this National Healthcare Decisions Day, I want to remind us that we cannot claim to be developing communities unless we are ensuring that every individual — regardless of age, gender, income, or education — has the tools, resources, and respect they need to decide what is best for their health.

To our partners: thank you for walking with us on this journey.

To our healthcare workers and educators: your role is critical in shaping awareness and access.

To our community members: your voice is not just valid — it is vital.

Let us continue to grow a future where development means more than statistics — it means people who are informed, equipped, and free to make decisions that shape their own health journeys.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
Together, let’s keep developing dignity, one choice at a time.

Thank you.

By the SayPro Chief Strategic Partnership Officer- Nancy Mdaka

Distinguished Partners, Esteemed Guests, SayPro Leaders and Teams, Healthcare Professionals, and Valued Communities,

Good day to you all.

It is an honour to stand before you today as we commemorate SayPro’s 2025 National Healthcare Decisions Day — a day dedicated to elevating one of the most critical principles in healthcare: the right and ability to make informed, personal health decisions.

As the Chief Strategic Partnership Officer at SayPro, my work revolves around building bridges — bridges between organisations, between sectors, and most importantly, between people and the systems that serve them. Today, more than ever, we need partnerships that go beyond transactions — partnerships rooted in trust, shared vision, and collective accountability.

Because the truth is this: healthcare decisions are not made in isolation. They are shaped by culture, education, economic access, community trust, and system responsiveness. And these factors are far too complex to be solved by any one institution, government, or organisation alone.

That is why SayPro believes in partnerships — strategic, sustainable, and people-centred partnerships.

In 2025, we have proudly expanded our work with:

• Government health departments to ensure patient rights are embedded in public health services
• Community-based organisations to bring culturally appropriate decision-making support directly to households
• Legal and advocacy groups to protect autonomy and consent across healthcare touchpoints
• Academic and research partners to generate evidence that drives equitable health decision policies
• And private sector collaborators to invest in innovations that make healthcare information more accessible, timely, and inclusive

Together, we are building an ecosystem where informed health decisions are not a privilege for the few, but a reality for all.

Today, I challenge every organisation, every funder, every civic institution and healthcare entity:
Don’t just provide services — build relationships.
Don’t just offer options — empower understanding.
Don’t just sign agreements — co-create solutions.

Partnerships are not measured only in contracts or outputs, but in lives improved and decisions respected.

To our communities, know this: you are not alone in your journey. Through strategic partnerships, SayPro is committed to walking beside you — making sure your voice is heard, your choice is respected, and your rights are protected.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
Together, through partnership, let us honour every person’s right to choose with knowledge, dignity, and care.

Thank you.

By the SayPro Chief Legal Officer- Neftaly Malatjie

Distinguished Guests, Colleagues, Healthcare Professionals, Legal Advocates, and Community Members,

Good day.

It is a privilege to address you today on this important occasion — SayPro’s 2025 National Healthcare Decisions Day. As the Chief Legal Officer of SayPro, I stand not only as a guardian of compliance and regulation, but as a committed advocate for justice, human rights, and legal empowerment in healthcare.

Healthcare decisions are deeply personal — yet they are also legal rights. The ability to make informed decisions about one’s body, treatment, care, and future is protected by our constitution, by ethical frameworks, and by international human rights law.

But here is the challenge: many people don’t know these rights exist. And even when they do, the systems to support them are too often inaccessible, unclear, or ineffective.

That’s where SayPro steps in.

In 2025, SayPro’s legal efforts have focused on one clear objective: To protect and promote the legal rights of individuals to make autonomous healthcare decisions — and to ensure those rights are honoured in every clinic, hospital, home, and policy.

This year, we have:

• Expanded our legal literacy campaigns, helping individuals understand their right to informed consent, advanced directives, and health confidentiality
• Worked with government and civil society to review healthcare laws and policies to ensure they are inclusive, enforceable, and patient-centered
• Supported training for healthcare providers to understand their legal obligations when it comes to respecting patient decisions
• And developed tools for families and vulnerable groups to navigate complex medical and legal environments with clarity and dignity

We must remember: legal empowerment is health empowerment. A right not known is a right not exercised. A law not implemented is a law ignored. And a patient not heard is a patient betrayed.

To healthcare workers: your duty is not only medical — it is legal. Respecting a patient’s informed choice is not optional. It is the law.

To policymakers: your responsibility is to ensure that our legal frameworks support real-life application — with fairness, accessibility, and consistency.

To our communities: your voice matters. You have the right to ask questions. You have the right to say yes, or no. And you have the right to be treated with dignity, always.

On this National Healthcare Decisions Day, let us reaffirm our shared commitment to building a health system rooted in justice, choice, transparency, and human dignity.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
Let us uphold the law. Let us defend the right to choose. Let us protect every decision — with compassion and with courage.

Thank you.

Delivered by the SayPro Chief Operations Officer- Clifford Legodi

Distinguished Guests, Esteemed Partners, Healthcare Workers, SayPro Team Members, and Members of the Public,

Good morning.

Today, on National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025, we gather not just to acknowledge the importance of making informed healthcare choices — but to affirm our collective responsibility to create the operational systems and structures that make those choices real, accessible, and respected.

As the Chief Operations Officer at SayPro, my daily responsibility is to turn plans into practice, vision into action, and values into outcomes. Today’s theme — the power of personal healthcare decisions — speaks directly to the operational backbone that must support every citizen’s right to choose the care that reflects their values, their culture, and their future.

Let’s be honest: A healthcare decision is only as meaningful as the system that supports it.

• If there are no clinics nearby — decisions are limited.
• If medical staff are overburdened or undertrained — decisions are misunderstood.
• If records are not accessible or patient histories are lost — decisions are delayed or denied.
• If families don’t know their rights — decisions are taken out of their hands.

That is why, at SayPro, we are working relentlessly to build and strengthen systems that operationalise dignity, efficiency, and trust across every healthcare touchpoint.

In 2025, our operations team has focused on:

• Streamlining healthcare access across all SayPro-supported regions
• Enhancing logistics and digital systems for patient information and consent tracking
• Supporting training and deployment of frontline health workers who understand ethical care delivery
• Coordinating with government and civil society to improve last-mile service delivery
• And ensuring that our community outreach and mobile health services reflect the diversity of the people we serve

We understand that the power to decide one’s healthcare path doesn’t lie in policy alone — it lives in the small details: a clinic that opens on time, a nurse who listens, a form that’s available in your language, a follow-up call that shows someone cares.

SayPro’s operational promise is this: We will continue to build systems that listen, respond, and empower. We will continue to remove the operational barriers that prevent people from making informed, timely, and compassionate healthcare decisions.

So today, I salute the teams who are behind the scenes — the logistics staff, the planners, the IT technicians, the data clerks, the drivers, the administrators. You are the quiet champions of this movement.

And to our communities: know this — we are building systems for you, with you, and because of you.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
Let’s build systems that respect every voice, support every decision, and reach every life.

Thank you.

By the SayPro Chief Human Capital Officer- Sinentlantla Mabusela

Esteemed Colleagues, Healthcare Champions, SayPro Family, Distinguished Guests, and Fellow Citizens,

Good day.

It is a deep honour to stand before you today on SayPro’s 2025 National Healthcare Decisions Day, a day that speaks not only to systems and services, but to human dignity, voice, and choice.

As the Chief Human Capital Officer at SayPro, my work focuses on what is often called our greatest asset — our people. But today I want to go further: our people are not just an asset. They are the heartbeat of this organisation and of every healthcare decision that matters.

Healthcare decisions are not made by machines or policies. They are made by human beings — patients, families, doctors, nurses, caregivers, and public servants. And behind each of those decisions is a world of emotion, belief, culture, and hope.

Our job in Human Capital is to ensure that the people within SayPro — and the broader systems we support — are equipped, trained, respected, and empowered to help others make informed healthcare choices.

This means:

• Recruiting professionals who understand and value patient autonomy
• Training staff in cultural competence and ethical care
• Supporting emotional intelligence in healthcare delivery
• Building workplaces that allow caregivers and healthcare workers to reflect, learn, and grow
• And promoting a workforce culture that sees every patient not as a case, but as a person

At SayPro, our 2025 Human Capital strategy has centred around empowerment and humanity — ensuring our teams not only understand the technical aspects of healthcare, but the relational and emotional dimensions that make decision-making possible.

Because when a mother chooses treatment for her child, when an elder outlines their wishes for end-of-life care, when a young adult seeks mental health support — the human response matters. Compassion matters. Listening matters. Respect matters.

Today, I ask every manager, HR professional, health leader, and caregiver across the country to ask themselves:

• Are we hiring and training for empathy?
• Are we building systems where staff can truly connect with patients?
• Are we valuing the human beings behind the decisions we support?

Let this day be a reminder that healthcare is not just about science — it is about relationships. It is about people helping people make some of the most personal decisions of their lives.

Let us continue to invest in our people — not just as professionals, but as carriers of dignity, wisdom, and hope.

Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025.
Let’s care with intention. Let’s lead with empathy. Let’s empower every human decision.

Thank you.