Port Alfred-based medical doctor, Ben Gaunt, puts it down to a profound experience that eventually led him and wife, Dr Taryn Gaunt, to accept jobs in the far-flung reaches of the former Transkei.
That was 2005, said Gaunt who was addressing members of the Probus Club last week.
Gaunt kept his audience enthralled as he recounted the story of his and Taryn’s experiences at Zithulele Hospital, nestled among rolling hills and across rivers about 100km from Mthatha.
“I was a junior doctor in KZN when I was referred to an elderly male patient,” said Ben. “I realised he was a day late for his op. It was only when he told me it had been raining and that he had to sleep at a bus stop, catch a bus that had to negotiate rough terrain and negotiate a river to get to hospital, that I had an insight moment. I never knew people were living like this and – that is what led me to placing my focus on rural medicine.”
Following work at Ngwelezana hospital in Empangeni and a stint in New Zealand, Ben and Taryn returned home to South Africa and accepted job offers at Zithulele where they fulfilled roles as clinical manager, and medical officer in charge of paediatrics, respectively. The couple met while studying at the University of Cape Town.
When the couple arrived at Zithulele with their three children, they found a hospital beset by problems.
“We are the most unequal country in the world. One of the things that stands out is that not many people in the Transkei live to their 80s and 90s except for the genetically robust.”
“The “tata” in KZN taught me a lesson that has benefited many more people because that changed the way I thought about healthcare,” said Ben.
“So much about the way we worked at Zithulele was about access to health care: people in our world have the greatest need of health care and yet have the poorest services.”
When he was dropped us at the hospital in 2005, the driver asked, “Why are you coming here?”
Ben and Taryn were asked that question many times throughout their tenure.
“To us the place was simply great with its pristine natural environment away from city life and so close to Coffee Bay. Some of the friendliest people in the country are from the Transkei. The hospitality despite the poverty is remarkable.”
Challenges at Zithulele were plentiful.
“You have to able to make a plan when you are working in a rural facility.”
In his slide presentation, Ben spoke of having to carefully remove a plaster cast from a trusting patient, using a carp[enter’s saw.
“At the end he got home with his foot but without the plaster,” Ben said to laughter.
Zithulele started as a mission hospital in 1956 and went through several reconstruction phases over the years. The Gaunts built their family home on previously owned church land adjacent to the hospital and a community centre.
“We started an NGO on site. Other NGOs grew alongside us and we were able to provide care and assistance to people across a variety of disciplines.”
What had been a small, underresourced rural hospital grew into 18 full-time doctor equivalents and physios, occupational therapists and pharmacists. They were the first site to pioneer community-based drug-resistant TB treatment before it became policy.
One of Zithulele’s biggest areas of success was in maternity.
“The community came to trust us and access care for moms and children.”
From one of every three women losing a child efore the Gaunts got to Zithulele, the child mortality rate dropped.
“By the time we left, our paediatric mortality rate was 10 times lower.”
Ben showed a picture of one of their own doctors with colleagues after giving birth to her child at Zithulele by C-Section.
“It became the norm that all of our doctors’ wives and the nurses and physios chose to deliver their babies at Zithulele. Our philosophy was that if we thought our services were good enough, then our staff would be able to receive treatment there,” said Ben.
The Gaunts’ world came crashing down when after 17 years service the hospital got a new CEO who didn’t share their ethos of care.
“When she and I had conflict over that, she made it personal and public.”
Showing photographs of staff and community members being teargassed when they preotested against the new developments, he said, ““The troops were marshalled against us.”
The family ended up in Port Alfred feeling completely displaced.
“We felt like refugees. We thought we were going to be at Zithulele until we retired,” said Ben.
He said they were finding their feet in private practice in Port Alfred and a new venture called Hospital at Home which sees him and Taryn delivering hospital- type care to patients at home.
“It is amazing what we can do (in private practice) with a similar ethos to the one we had in rural medicine.”
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This article was first published in Talk of the Town, May 22, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
