“Medical tourism has become a major focus of research and policy interest in the Global South in recent years. Much of the discussion focuses on the motives and impact of Europeans and North Americans who travel to developing countries for lower cost medical and health care. This paper first reviews the operation of the private sector industry in South Africa and the role of medical facilitators in particular. The paper shows that cosmetic surgery is only one small segment of medical tourism to South Africa. This paper aims to reinstate intra African medical tourism and migration as an important topic worthy of further research and policy attention. “
