Prof Craig Househam is a graduate of the University of Cape Town, having completed both undergraduate and postgraduate study at this university. He is a specialist paediatrician and holds an honorary professorship from the University of the Free State, where he headed the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health until January 1995.

He became the head of the Free State Health Department in February 1995, a post which he held until 2001. In 2002, he was appointed as head of the Western Cape Department of Health, a post which he held until his retirement on 31st March 2015. As Head of Health in the Free State and the Western Cape, Prof Househam served various national and provincial bodies and management structures.

Since his retirement, Professor Househam served on a national ministerial task team related to hospital performance from 2015 to 2017 and from December 2017 to April 2018 and was a member of the intervention task team appointed to assist the management of the Gauteng Department of Health. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Prof Househam was appointed with Prof Taole Mokoena to investigate Personal Protective Equipment PPE) availability in three major hospitals. Prof Househam was contracted from April 2021 to April 2022 by the National Treasury to review Public Financial Management (PFM) practice in the health sector in North-West Province. He is the author of two books, a contributor to two medical textbooks, and the author of scientific publications in the fields of paediatrics and healthcare.

Prof Househam has served on the boards of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), where he chaired the SAHPRA Board Audit Committee, and the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC), where he was a member of the OHSC Board Finance and Risk Committee. He is currently Vice Chairperson of the St. Luke’s Hospice Operating Company Board and Chair of the Board Risk Committee and was appointed as Deputy Chairperson of the NHLS Board on 1 November 2024.