The Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital in Soweto performed its first heart surgery last week. A group of black medical practitioners led by Dr Ismail Ebrahim and Dr Sashriqua Palliam operated on Grade 12 pupil Tumisang Motsikwa after he was brutally stabbed outside his school trying to defend a schoolmate from being robbed.

This story received national headlines over the week. Heart surgery is one of the most complicated of medical procedures to undertake, with life-threatening risks...