Week Ahead
4 September – 8 September
“The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or out of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the revolution to triumph. Women hold up the other half of the sky.” – Thomas Sankara
Monday, 4 September
Advocacy Officer Vovo Gonyela and Eastern Cape Coordinator Bhekisisa Maqephula are in Alfred Nzo District Municipality to conduct a civil society capacity building workshop. The workshop is an initiative by SECTION27 and has received endorsement and support from the office of the District HIV/AIDS Coordinator. The purpose is to strengthen civil society participation within the AIDS council and empower participants to meaningfully monitor the implementation of HIV, TB and STIs services across the district.
Monday, 4 September – Wednesday, 6 September
Mpumalanga Community Mobiliser Sifiso Nkala will be in Piet Retief. He will be training the AIDS Council civil society sectors. This training will be followed by a Civil Society work-plan for the next two years in the sub-municipality to fight HIV, TB and STIs whilst monitoring and supporting the health facilities for better access to services.
Tuesday, 5 September – Thursday, 7 September
Paralegal Ntombi Maphosa and Researcher Tendai Mafuma will be in the Free State updating our Community Heathworker clients, the BopheloHouse94, on their civil claims for unlawful arrest. This group of clients consists of Community Health Workers and Treatment Action Campaign members who were arrested for protesting against the unilateral termination of their services. The BopheloHouse94 successfully challenged the unlawful arrest in court and are now seeking compensation.
Limpopo Community Mobiliser Solanga Milambo will be visiting Ndzalama Primary School to meet with the school’s principal and School Governing Body (SGB) members regarding infrastructure challenges. He will be working with Ndzalama Primary on establishing norms and standards around the importance of school funding.
Wedneday, 6 September
SECTION27 Sexual Violence team (Kirsten Whitfield, Sheniece Linderboom, Thabang Pooe and Pamela Choga) will conduct a workshop for Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (WRHI) community activists. The workshop will be focusing on constitutional rights and literacy as well as sexual violence against children.
Eastern Cape Field Researcher Fikile Boyce will be meeting with Mzukisi Manzana a former New Brighton Clinic patient who publicly challenged issues at the clinic which has now resulted in him now being escorted by the clinic’s security personnel whenever he visits the clinic.
Thursday, 7 September
Executive Director Mark Heywood and SECTION27 journalist Nomatter Ndebele will be at the The Open Book Festival, an annual literary festival held in Cape Town. The event includes over 150 literary events, featuring over 100 authors over 5 days.
On Thursday, at 6pmto 7pm he will be speaking on the Apartheid Archive panel, at the Fugard Theatre. Mark will speak alongside Chandre Gould, Karabo Rajuili and Hennie van Vuuren to discuss the obstacles to open access with Syliva Vollenhoven.
The SECTION27 health team, Treatment Action Campaign, Rural Health Advocacy Project and People’s Health Movement will be meeting with the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to discuss National Health Insurance.
Eastern Cape Field Researcher Fikile Boyce will meet with the family of a patient who died after falling down five floors at the Dora Nginza hospital. He will also be meeting with a patient who got maggots ,from the same hospital, because his wound dressings were not changed. An internal investigation was launched in both incidents absolving the hospital, however the bereaved family and patient who got maggots would like to oppose this and find out what steps are available for them to challenge this outcome.
Community Mobiliser Solanga Milambo will be visiting the Sekhukhune district to meet with Basic Education For All (BEFA) District Executive members with the aim of assisting them with identifying schools that need delivery of the braille version of the Basic Education Right Hand book as well as copies for BEFA members who are visually impaired.
Friday, 8 September
Mark Heywood is back at the book festival and will speak on the Social Justice panel at the Fugard Theatre from 12pm to 1pm. Mark will speak along side Lorenzo Fioramonti and Thandeka Gqubule with moderator Pippa Green about activism in 2017 South Africa.
Mark Heywood will also speak at the Africartoon convention conference for Social Justice at the Cape Town Waterfront from 1pm. This is the first ever convention of South African editorial cartoonists, drawn together to discuss the purpose of their art, and the challenges and opportunities they face.
Professor Brook Baker, a Professor of Law at Northeastern University will be giving an Intellectual Property and access to medicines course to SECTION27 Researcher Luvo Nelani , Student for Law and Social Justice Research Fellow Pamela Choga, Researcher Tendai Mafuma, the TAC Campaigns Officer Leonora Mathe and Senior Researcher Samara Ragavan. Professor Baker is a Professor of Law and a senior policy analyst for Health Gap. His work focuses on intellectual property and access to medicines and intensifying the legal, economic and policy response to the global HIV/AIDS pandemics.
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