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.
“How do you smile at patient number 200?” The #Care4carers campaign in South Africa
Fikile Dikolomela-Lengene speaks about the launch of the #Care4carers campaign and report, which reveals just how deeply the erosion of work rights of nurses and community health workers is undermining patient care.
What “Saving the academic year at all costs” means for students from poor households
Hlengiwe explores the effects of the covid-19 lockdown on poor high school and university students navigating access to education in a time of heightened economic and social distress.
Interview with Gauteng MEC for Health, Dr Bandile Masuku
On 31 May, a day before South Africa moved to Level 3 of our national lockdown, SWOP’s director, Dr Prishani Naidoo, got to speak with Dr Bandile Masuku, MEC for Health in the province of Gauteng.
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.