Community, Health, and Work

The threat of Covid-19 has highlighted in very stark ways the problems with existing ways of approaching questions of community, health and work, while at the same time showing the need for alternatives to them.

Interview with Alexandra community health workers, Thabo Shivalo and Patricia Petja

Thabo Shivalo and Patricia Petja are both community health workers in Alexandra and members of the National Union of Care Workers of South Africa (NUCWOSA), established in 2017. They speak about the challenges they experience in their work, their disappointed hopes of being recognised as permanent employees of the Department of Health and their continued marginalisation in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, even while they have been thrust to its frontline.

Interview with NUPSAW national organiser, Solly Malema

Solly Malema, the national organiser of the National Union of Public Sector and Allied Workers, NUPSAW. In the interview, Malema discusses some of the challenges faced by CHWs, who are estimated to form between 17- and 18,000 of the union’s membership.