Zokufa had vast skills in health
BORN: October 25 1952
DIED: January 22 2017
FUNERAL: January 28 2017
BURIAL: Pretoria
THE health profession is mourning the death of Dr Humphrey Zokufa who died last Sunday after a short illness.
His death is a great loss to the health sector in general and the medical scheme industry in particular, as he was in charge of the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) in South Africa as registrar.
“We struggled a great deal in getting the most suitable registrar for CMS and unfortunately now he is gone with the wealth of experience and skills he possessed,” said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
Zokufa was born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, on October 25 1952. He attended primary school in the village of kwaNojoli and completed his high school education at Healdtown Comprehensive School, a Methodist school near Fort Beaufort.
He obtained his bachelor of pharmacy degree from the University of the North in Limpopo and went on to earn a doctor of pharmacy degree and a post-doctoral Fellowship from the University of Minnesota, St Paul Ramsey Medical Center in Minneapolis, USA. He then completed a diploma in health management at the University of Cape Town.
Zokufa was registered with the South African Pharmacy Council as a pharmacist and a specialist in clinical pharmacokinetics
He was recently appointed chief executive and registrar of CMS after serving as managing director of the Board of Healthcare Funders of Southern Africa (BHF) for 11 years.
He was passionate about healthcare, and established the clinical pharmacy unit at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in East London shortly after obtaining his doctorate.
This unit involved applying clinical pharmacokinetics, patho-physiology and pharmacology principles in therapeutic drug monitoring of patients.
With nearly four decades of experience in the health sector, Zokufa has served in numerous key positions including that of chief director for health management services in the Eastern Cape health department in Bhisho and cluster manager for pharmaceutical policy and planning in the national Department of Health.
In January 2005, he was appointed registrar of the Medicines Control Council (MCC).
During this period he established the national essential drugs list committee (NEDLC), and also took over the responsibility of licensing pharmacies, previously conducted by the SA Pharmacy Council.
Zokufa implemented the dispensing licensing process by the Department of Health, to license non-pharmaceutical health professionals to dispense medicines. In 2003, he initiated the provision in the Pharmacy Act 88 of 1997 of allowing any person who is not a pharmacist to own a pharmacy.
He was behind the introduction of medicine price controls in SA in 2004 as provided for in the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965. On several occasions he interacted with, among others, the portfolio committee on health, National Council of Provinces, cabinet, and the World Health Organisation.
In 2003 he was appointed by the minister of health as a member of the medicine pricing committee. He was also appointed a member of the ministerial task team that looked at the restructuring of the MCC in 2006.
In 2009 he was appointed a member of the national health insurance ministerial advisory committee.
He is survived by his wife, Thandiwe Zokufa and his children, three daughters and a son, and two grandchildren.
May his soul rest in peace.