There is something that happens when a room full of pain medicine specialists comes together that simply cannot be replicated online. Ideas sharpen. Techniques are refined in real time. Connections are made that shape careers. That is what WIP Africa events are built around.
Whether you are a seasoned interventional pain physician, a fellow in training, or a clinician looking to expand into pain medicine, attending a WIP Africa workshop, symposium, or conference is one of the most high-return professional investments you can make this year.
Here is why.
1. Hands-On Training That Changes How You Practise
Lecture-based learning has its place, but interventional pain medicine is, by definition, a hands-on discipline. The techniques we use — from spinal cord stimulation and radiofrequency ablation to ultrasound-guided nerve blocks and epidural procedures — require more than theoretical knowledge. They require guided practice, real-time feedback, and repetition under supervision.
WIP Africa workshops are structured around this reality. Our hands-on training sessions use cadavers, high-fidelity simulators, and ultrasound phantoms to give participants a genuine learning experience. Faculty members are practising interventional pain specialists who bring their clinical knowledge directly into the training room.
Participants consistently report that a single well-designed workshop accelerates their clinical competency in ways that months of independent study cannot match.
2. Access to Global Expertise, Right Here on the Continent
One of the most valuable aspects of WIP Africa events is the calibre of faculty we bring together. Our events regularly feature internationally recognised pain medicine specialists — many of whom are FIPP and CIPS holders — from across Africa and around the world.
This means you have the opportunity to learn directly from leaders in neuromodulation, regenerative medicine, ultrasonography, and evidence-based interventional techniques — without leaving the continent. The exchange of knowledge between African and international faculty also enriches the conversation, grounding global best practice in African clinical realities.
3. A Community That Sustains You Beyond the Event
Pain medicine can be a professionally isolating specialty, particularly for clinicians working in settings where they are the only specialist in their institution or region. WIP Africa events create a sense of community that persists long after the closing dinner.
The connections you make at a WIP Africa event — with colleagues from across the continent, with international faculty, with WIP’s global network — are connections that translate into ongoing professional support. Colleagues to consult on complex cases. Co-investigators for research. Collaborators for future training initiatives. Friends who understand exactly what you are navigating.
4. CPD and CME Credit in a Field That Demands Currency
Pain medicine is an evolving discipline. New evidence continuously shapes our understanding of optimal techniques, patient selection, and long-term outcomes. Attending accredited WIP Africa events ensures that your continuing professional development is structured, documented, and aligned with current best practice.
Our events are designed to provide CPD and CME credit recognised by regional and international bodies — so the hours you invest in your professional development count in every sense.
5. The Certification Pathway Runs Through These Events
For clinicians working towards FIPP or CIPS certification, WIP Africa events are not optional extras — they are often an integral part of the pathway. Examination sittings are hosted at WIP-endorsed events, and our workshops are specifically designed to prepare candidates for the competency standards the examinations assess.
Attending a WIP Africa event can be the moment that brings your certification journey into focus: the preparation resources crystallise, the examination process demystifies, and the community of certified practitioners around you becomes visible and tangible.
What to Expect at a WIP Africa Event
Every WIP Africa event is different in its specific focus and format, but most share a common structure:
Join Us in 2026
WIP Africa has an ambitious programme of events planned for 2026, spanning multiple countries and clinical focus areas. Whether you are interested in a targeted ultrasound-guided techniques workshop, a comprehensive interventional pain symposium, or an annual conference bringing together the continent’s pain medicine community — there is an event designed for where you are in your career.
Spaces at our hands-on workshops are intentionally limited to ensure the quality of the learning experience. We encourage you to register early and secure your place.
Pain medicine is at a pivotal moment in Africa. The clinicians who show up, keep learning, and stay connected are the ones who will define what this specialty becomes on this continent.
EPP AWARD CENTERS
Pain Clinic – Cape Town
200C East Wing
Constantiaberg Mediclinic, Cape Town, South Africa
Director: Eric Wilson, BSc(med); MB; BCh;
DM; MSc (Pain); MMed; FIPP; RSA.
Dr Siyabonga Mkhize is a specialist anaesthesiologist based at Netcare The Bay Hospital with extensive expertise in interventional pain medicine. He holds double international certification from the World Institute of Pain as both a Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP) and a Certified Interventional Pain Sonologist (CIPS), reflecting advanced proficiency in image-guided pain procedures.
Dr Mkhize has been in private pain practice since 2014 and leads Pain Clinic eThekwini, with additional practices in Richards Bay, Ballito, Ladysmith, and Mthatha (Eastern Cape). His clinical interests include interventional pain management, ultrasound-guided procedures, and multidisciplinary approaches to chronic pain care.
Professional Registration: MP 0528323 | PR 0727830
Certifications: FIPP (1494) | CIPS (387)
Contact: 032 586 8014
Neurosurgeon and Pain Interventionist
Upon completing Masters degree in Neurosurgery at the University of Pretoria in 2012, Dr Thobejane worked in Namibia and that is where his interest in pain management grew. He then obtained a fellowship in interventional pain management with the World Institute of Pain (WIP) in 2015, with interest in neuropathic pain and neuromodulation.
Currently in private practice at Zuid Afrikaans Hospital (South Africa) and Walvis Bay Medipark (Namibia). Trained and certified in minimally invasive spine surgery, spinal motion preservation techniques including endoscopic spine surgery, offering patients tailor-made solutions for various spinal pathologies.
Given his experience and clinical acumen, Dr Thobejane was appointed in key leadership positions by his peers, he became president of World Institute of Pain (Africa Section), deputy president of Pain South Africa and member of American College of Independent Medical Examiners (ABIME). Appointed ABIME Board Advisor representing Southern Africa in 2021. He was also an adjunct lecturer at University of Namibia, before he became a visiting consultant at the department of neurosurgery in Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Pretoria.
His services continue to be used as a proctor by multiple companies on the training for minimally invasive spine surgeries and interventional pain techniques in the field of pain management, conducting workshops for spine surgeons and surgeon to surgeon training.
Dr Caryn April is a specialised medical and interventional pain physician with a passion for inclusive, patient-centred care and chronic pain management. She runs her own private pain clinic at the Cure Day Hospital Foreshore in Cape Town and carries out sessional work at Crestcare Hospital in Malmesbury.
Dr April graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2010, achieving distinctions in her clinical and final clinical examinations. In her final year, she was awarded the class medal for surgery and the Donald Barnes Prize for the top student in Urology. In 2013, she completed a postgraduate Diploma in Primary Emergency Care (South Africa).
She subsequently worked as a full-time emergency medicine practitioner for the Melomed Hospital Group before deciding, in 2018, to pursue a career in surgery — first as a medical officer and then as a registrar in general surgery at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The following year, she completed her primary examinations in general surgery (Primary of the Fellowship of the College of Surgeons of South Africa — The College of Medicine South Africa), attending numerous surgical skills workshops and gaining experience across emergency and elective procedures. From 2021, she also assisted neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons in private practice, including involvement in the first endoscopic spinal surgery performed in Cape Town.
From early 2021, Dr April chose to focus exclusively on interventional pain medicine. She has continued to build her expertise through attendance at numerous local and international World Institute of Pain (WIP) congresses and cadaver skills workshops, most recently in Budapest (2025), Istanbul (2024), and Cape Town (2024). She has presented research at the PainSA Congress and various faculty meetings and is actively involved in training and mentoring medical doctors with an interest in the field.
In 2024, Dr April obtained her Fellowship in Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP) from the World Institute of Pain after successfully sitting her FIPP examinations in Istanbul — a landmark achievement and one that makes her among only four South African women to have done so. In January 2026, she was elected Secretary of the WIP Africa Section and welcomed onto the World Institute of Pain Executive Board. She remains committed to advancing WIP's mission across South Africa and the wider African continent.
Dr. Agbazue has been in full-time private practice since 2007. He is an Orthopaedic Surgeon, with a special interest in Pain Management. He has rooms at Medi Clinic Vereeniging & Johannesburg Surgical Hospital.
He completed his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) at the University of Nigeria during 1991. He received an Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates USA in 1997. He received his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons at Glasgow, UK during 1998. In 1999, he completed a diploma in Primary Emergency Care (South Africa). He received a Fellowship at the College of Orthopaedic Surgeons, South Africa, in 2004, following his training in Orthopaedics at the University of the Witwatersrand from 2000-2004. During 2017, he received a Fellowship of Interventional Pain Practice at Miami (FIPP), USA. He is a Certified Interventional Pain Sonologist (CIPS), which he received in September 2023. He has extensive training in both Europe and Asia.
He has vast experience in arthroscopic, endoscopic, and innovative surgeries, including minimally invasive spinal surgery, minimally invasive hip surgery, and pain management.
He has performed thousands of surgical operations covering complex reconstructive surgeries, spinal deformity corrections, arthroplasties, sports medicine covering shoulder, knee, elbow, wrist, ankle, hip arthroscopic surgeries, and Endoscopic spinal operations.
International Speaker and Medical Trainer
He has internationally and nationally presented and trained (workshops) academic audiences on several medical specialist topics. During 2018 Dr Agbazue attended and presented a workshop for Smith and Nephew in Nigeria on hip and knee replacements. He is part of the World Institute of Pain and a faculty member of the World Institute of Pain Africa section and the current chair of the African section. He is also the secretary of the South African Endoscopic Society.
Medical Publication
He has published medical articles in Medical Magazines and medical Journals and is involved in research innovations.
Specialist Consultant
Neurospine
Vertice
Medtronic
Dr. Dennis Agbazue performed the first few cases of anterior minimal invasive Surgery (AIMS) hip replacements in the Vall Triangle from July 2019.
He has a passion for teaching and mentoring and loves soccer and chess