ABOUT SAPA

Our History

The South African Paediatric Association (SAPA) was formed in the 1970’s. Its main focus was the hosting of scientific meetings. It was dormant in the early 1980’s, but revived itself in the late 1980’s. At this stage, it re-commenced holding biennial paediatric conferences which have persevered since, with each of the country’s nine universities taking a turn to organise the scientific content of the conference.

SAPA was affiliated to the Medical Association of South Africa (MASA) in its early days. However, the politics of MASA, including its non-response to the unprofessional conduct of district surgeons involved in Steve Biko’s death, dissuaded black (African, Indian, ‘Coloured’) paediatricians joining SAPA until the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, and the formation of the South African Medical Association (SAMA) in 1998.

In 2010, SAPA hosted the highly successful 26th International Pediatric Association (IPA) Congress of Pediatrics in Johannesburg, the first IPA congress to be held in sub-Saharan Africa in its hundred year history. The conference president was Prof Keith Bolton and Prof Peter Cooper served as the scientific committee chair.

Past presidents of SAPA include Prof Oliver Ransome, Prof Malcolm Bowie, Prof Dankwart Wittenberg, Prof Razia Bobat, Dr Humphery Lewis, Dr Neil McKerrow, and Prof Haroon Saloojee.