“In this bright future you can’t forget your past.” – Bob Marley
Week Ahead
29 January – 3 February
Dear Friends, we are at the end of January and many of us are wondering where the first year of the month went! January has been a busy month at SECTION27 and February will be no different.
Monday, 29 January
Mpumalanga Field Researcher Sifiso Nkala will be attending the inaugural meeting of the Msukaligwa Municipality AIDS council secretariat in his capacity as civil society chairperson. The intention of the meeting is to prepare a written report for the first Msukaligwa Municipality AIDS council meeting which will take place on 08 February 2018.
Researcher Patrick Mdletshe will be attending a meeting with KwaZulu-Natal MEC of Health Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo. The MEC will be updating civil society on the latest developments on the issues of Addington hospital oncology problems and the state of the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB and STI in the province.
Tuesday, 30 January
The Life Esidimeni arbitration resumes at the Emoyeni Conference Centre in Johannesburg. On Tuesday the MEC for Finance in Gauteng, Barbara Creecy, and Premier David Makhura will be testifying. On Wednesday the hearings will end with MEC for Health Gwen Ramokgopa and Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. Legal argument will be heard the following week. SECTION27 represents more than 70 families who lost their loved ones as a result of the Life Esidimeni Marathon Project.
Communications officer, Ntsiki Mpulo will attend a planning meeting for the inaugural Human Rights Festival to be held on the 23 to 25 March 2018. She will join peer organisations in the Human rights; Democracy and Constitutionalism sectors to discuss the details of the festival which will take place at Constitutional Hill.
Limpopo Field Researcher Solanga Milambo will meet with partners in Johannesburg to discuss the advocacy and training around the 2018 School Governing Body Election Campaigns. The election of the SGBs is important as these bodies play a crucial role in the governance structures of schools.
Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Solanga Milambo and Patrick Mdletshe will attend the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) civil society meeting in Pretoria. The meeting will be consulting civil society in the run-up to the COP 18 regional meeting and will be attended by all SANAC sectors and Provincial Chairpersons.
Sifiso Nkala will be attending a Treatment Action Campaign reporting and planning meeting in Mpumalanga.
SECTION27 will be represented in an Eastern Cape Local Aids Council meeting by Bheki Maqephula who coordinates our National Strategic Plan (on HIV) work in the province. The meeting will be held in Maluti, a rural sub-district of the greater Alfred Nzo district municipality, where teenage pregnancies and child marriages are prevalent. The meeting will give SECTION27 a platform to engage with the Local AIDS Councils on our Sexual Reproductive and Health Rights programme.
Thursday 1 February
The legal and advocacy team in the Michael Komape case will be in Polokwane to present the heads of argument in the Rosina Komape vs The Department of Education case to be heard in the Polokwane High Court on the 1st and 2nd of February. Michael Komape was the 5 year old boy who fell into a pit toilet at school and died in 2014.
Friday, 2 February
Sifiso Nkala will attend a Treatment Action Campaign Mpumalanga, strategic meeting to discuss the findings at health facilities in the kwaNdebele area (kwaMhlanga, Tweefontein, Kwaggafontein). There are reports of no patient toilets, inadequate infrastructure and shortage of staff.
VIVA OF THE WEEK
Huge Congrats to our senior advocate and all-round Education guru Faranaaz Veriava who has passed her doctorate. The topic of her thesis is The Contribution of the Courts and of Civil Society to the Development of a Transformative Constitutionalist Narrative for the Right to Basic Education. It discusses and analyses whether or not the education litigation initiated by civil society organisations, together with the education jurisprudence of the courts, and the interplay between the two, have contributed to the development of an approach to the right to basic education in section 29(1)(a) of the Constitution that is capable of transforming the quality of basic education in South Africa’s historically disadvantaged schools. We are incredibly proud of her!
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