South Africa has experienced tremendous change over the last quarter century: the first democratically elected government, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, changing health, social and economic policies and now the COVID-19 pandemic.

The South African Medical Research Council/Wits University Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit has, for nearly three decades, conducted health and socio-demographic surveillance in a rural sub-district known as Agincourt, in Mpumalanga province. This surveillance work is enabled by long-standing partnerships with the communities and the public health sector.