Kgosi Letlape

former president of the Health Professions Council and chairman of the Medical and Dental Board of South Africa

Kgosi Letlape, an ophthalmologist from South Africa, is president of the Health Professions Council and chairman of the Medical and Dental Board of South Africa. He is the current president of the Africa Medical Association and president of Association of Medical Councils of Africa. He is also past chairman of the board of the South African Medical Association (SAMA) and past president of the World Medical Association (WMA), the global representative body for physicians. 

He was admitted as a fellow of the College of Surgeons of South Africa in April 1988 and as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for ophthalmology in May 1988. He has the distinction of being the first black African to qualify as an ophthalmologist in Southfield, South Africa, and the first to become president of the WMA.

He is the former executive director of the Tshepang Trust (2002 to 2013), a not-for-profit organization that pioneered the provision of treatment for HIV and AIDS patients in partnership with state hospitals, an initiative he initiated through the SAMA at the request of the late President Nelson Mandela with a bequest from the Nelson Mandela Foundation and funding from the Presidential Emergency Programme for AIDS Relief through the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

He is a healthcare activist who believes that everyone in South Africa has a right to and deserves to receive equal healthcare and that a lot of today’s illnesses can be prevented. To that end, he co-founded the Africa Harm Reduction Alliance, whose aim is to create awareness and educate about the need to reduce harm and promote well-being.

Letlape is an avid golfer who lives in Johannesburg with his wife, children and grandchildren.