South African hospital faces legal action for refusing liver transplant to Zimbabwean teen

Bureaucratic red tape is standing between 15-year-old Vanessa Mafu and the liver transplant that could save her life.

Diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis that has progressed to liver cirrhosis, the teenager urgently requires a transplant. But because she is the child of Zimbabwean parents living in South Africa without formal immigration papers, doctors at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital have reportedly told her she does not qualify to receive a liver from a deceased South African donor.

Now, her mother, Vuyelwa Ncube, is turning to the courts in a desperate bid to save her daughter. An urgent application has been filed in the Johannesburg High Court, naming the hospital, the ministers of health and home affairs, the Gauteng MEC for health, and a treating doctor as respondents.

In her affidavit, Ncube said a doctor told her Vanessa cannot undergo a liver transplant until she - Ncube - produces a valid visa or permit. "This application is urgent and cannot wait to be heard on the ordinary roll because my daughter is extremely unwell," she stated. "Her condition is so dire and exigent that the matter cannot wait."

Vanessa was diagnosed in December 2024 and has been in and out of hospital since then, with her health rapidly declining. Last month, Ncube was informed about the types of transplants available - either from a deceased donor or a living relative. But despite her daughter's deteriorating condition, she was not provided with any legal justification for the exclusion of non-South African children from access to deceased donor transplants.

"It is significantly more difficult for my daughter to successfully get a liver transplant from a living person," said Ncube. "My daughter has a reasonable apprehension of imminent death because she has been denied a liver transplant from a deceased donor."

The family's legal team is asking the court to stop what they describe as discriminatory and unconstitutional practices in South Africa's public healthcare system. Human rights lawyer Advocate Simba Chitando, who is representing the family, did not mince words.

"This matter is urgent because it is a life-saving procedure, but it is also one of the most cruel, inhuman, and blatantly xenophobic acts perpetuated by the state against a child," said Chitando. "South Africa has lost its moral, legal, and pan-African compass."

Chitando says the case is about more than one child's life - it's about systemic discrimination. "My clients remain defiant under the circumstances, and the legal team I'm leading will do everything in our power to save this beautiful Zimbabwean girl's life."

The hospital and government officials named in the application have not responded to media queries, despite several attempts for comment this week.

Meanwhile, the cost of undergoing a transplant privately remains far out of reach. A liver transplant at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre under the "non-standard service" category is priced at just under R1.75 million - an impossible figure for the Mafu family.