Editorial by the Registrar

The South African pharmacy profession has just concluded the celebration of Pharmacy Month this September, the final preparations for the 4^th National Pharmacy Conference and National Pioneer Pharmacy Awards falling into place, and HIV/Aids prevention access is family expanding through PIMART. Mr Vincent Tlala, the Registrar/CEO of the South African Pharmacy Council unpacks these and other developments in this article.

Editorial: Message from the Registrar

While we celebrate the achievements that we have had in 2026, we remain aware of the work at hand for the South African Pharmacy Council in the months that remain in the year. This issue of the Pharmaciae contains articles representing the milestones in the work of Council, key announcements regarding the practice environment and programmes, as well as developments in the Office of the Registrar and the profession.

We have just concluded the celebration of the 2026 Pharmacy Month, under the theme “Ask Your Pharmacist. Your pharmacist – your partner in health”. This was our most accessible Pharmacy Month yet, with more linguistic communities reached that we have done in previous years – in addition to the 12 official languages, the message was also available in the languages of the Khoi, San and Nama people of South Africa, and we further provided access to schools and organisations for the blind in South Africa, the South African Library for the Blind as well as municipal and regional libraries and pharmacies serving blind members of various communities across the country. We express our gratitude to Blind SA, the South African Library for the Blind, the South African Council for the Blind and its member organisations, and various organisations serving the blind in South Africa for helping us achieve this milestone.

We are days away from the 4^th National Pharmacy Conference (4^th NPC), which will be held at the majestic Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre Complex (“Durban ICC”) from 11 to 13 October 2026 – the conference will close with the National Pioneer Pharmacy Awards gala ceremony to be held on the evening of Tuesday, 13 October 2026 where we will honour pioneers in various sectors of Pharmacy. The conference will bring together members of our beautiful profession representing its various sectors, as well as stakeholders from government and pharmacy organisations from across the nation, to both gain knowledge best practice and to engage in discussions that seek to shape policy and our profession in response to the country health care priorities and other environmental factors impacting on Pharmacy. There a various side events also planned to take place around the conference, this issue of the Pharmaciae highlights some of these.

A little more than a month ago, we announced the implementation of Pharmacist-Initiated Management of Antiretroviral Therapy (PIMART) through a limited scope permit which would allow PIMART-qualified pharmacists to provide a limited scope of services available in the PIMART scope of practice. While this is underway, we are working across the clock to ensure that the full scope of services is available in the coming months.

As I close, I would like to remind all practising pharmacists of the impending deadline for the 2026 Continuing Professional Development compliance period – all six (6) CPD entries must be submitted to Council by the end of December 2026. I thus call upon those members of our profession who may require guidance on how to comply to visit the SAPC CPD Blog at www.sapc.za.org/CPDBlog to access how-to articles and videos to assist them in the compliance journey. For pharmacists at the 4^th NPC, each session and/or workshop presents a CPD opportunity – we therefore encourage you to submit you CPD entries are you attend the conference

We look forward to seeing you at the 4^th NPC in a few days.

Mr Vincent Tlala
Registrar/CEO
South African Pharmacy Council