Bringing Justice to Unacceptable Health Care Services? Street-Level Reflections from Urban South Africa

Transforming repressive institutions into respected instruments of justice is necessary for the social reconstruction of fragile and postconflict states. Yet, little attention has been given to the role of health systems in facilitating such change. We situate South Africa’s right to access health care as part of a broader sociopolitical endeavour to ‘bring justice’ in the aftermath of apartheid and argue that street-level bureaucrats tasked …