In line with the mandate of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the Centre for Tuberculosis (CTB) conducts laboratory-based public health surveillance of TB in South Africa, serves as a National TB reference laboratory (NTBRL) and participates in microbiology and epidemiology-oriented training programmes. The CTB also initiates applied public health research aimed at providing enhanced intelligence on the drivers and protective factors that underlie the TB epidemic in South Africa