ubomi bethu, amabali ethu abezokhuseleko lwabucala...

Ubomi bethu, amabali ethu

Edition 11 | 1 - 15 November 2016Electricity shortage sparks protests in Los Angeles p.3

The struggle of community health workers p.4-5

El i tsha

Ibhalwe ngu Mzi Velapi

Kugxekwe kabukhali ubundlo-bongela obusetyenziswa zinkam-pani zabucala zesokhuseleko

kumaziko emfundo ephakamileyo kulo lonke ilizwe.

Kwingxoxo zikawonke-wonke za-kutshanje ebiziququzelelwe yi-Right 2 Know, ongumfundi kwi-Yunivesti yase Kapa (UCT) nobengomnye wabachon-gelwe ukwenza intentho uBrian Kamanzi uthe kufuneka kupheliswe iinkam-pani zabucala zokhuseleko, kwaye ze-nziwe zingabikho semthethweni kuba zibangela ukungabikho kuka masilin-gane. “Ukungabikho kuka masilingane ngokwezoqoqosho kuko okubangela ukungabikho kokhuseleko”, utshilo loka Kamanzi.

Omele abo bajongene nendlela ez-isebenza ngayo inkampani zabucala i-Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PRISA) uStefan Badenhorst uthi, inkulu indima esezakudlalwa zinkampani zabucala zokhuseleko kumaziko aphakamileyo emfundo kweli.

“Indima edlalwa ngabezokhuseleko yileyo yokukhusela ukungonakaliswa kwezinto ngabo baqhankqalazayo” ut-shilo loka Badenhorst.

Inkamapani zokhuseleko zabucala le-linye lamacandelo amakhulu e Mzantsi-Afrika. Ngokutsho kuka Badenhorst icandelo lwezokhuseleko lonogada lelo-na linamanani aphezulu engqesho apha eMzantsi-Afrika. “Icandelo lezokhusele-ko labucala lilandela icandelo lemigodi ngokwamanani engqesho”. Inkampani yezokhuseleko yabucala esetyenziswa yi UCT iVetus Schola isebenzisa abo babe-saya kuba ngamajoni emfazwe. Oku kuye kwagxekwa kabukhali kuba bakholela ukuba kubangela ukuba badlakathise abafundi. I-Vetus Schola yayikhe yasety-enziswa ukuphelisa uqhankqalazo lwa-basebenzi basemigodini eShisen Mine kwaye amafama aseNtshona Koloni abi-za kwa lenkampani ukuzama ukuphelisa uqhankqalazo lwabasebenzi basezifama ngo 2012.

Loka Badenhorst uthe bazakuse-benzisana ne-Vetus Schola ukuqinise-kisa ukuba oonogada babo banezazisi ezibonakalayo.

Oku kuvele emva kokuba abafundi bale Yunivesiti nabebezimase le ngxoxo batyhole ngelithi abanaphawu oonoga-da be-Vetus Schola kwaye bathi oku kubangela ukuba noba sebefuna uku-bamangalela bangakwazi.

Obemele i-Right2Know uAlex Hotz uthe abo basebenzela ezinkampani bayabaxhokonxa abafundi kuba befuna ukuba babanjwe. “Kwabo sebevele ez-inkudleni zamatyala ngenxa yokuban-jiswa zinkampani zabucala kuzwelonke baphume betshaya kuba Oomantyi benkundla besithi akukho nto ibangela kucingwe ukuba baphule umthetho”, utshilo loka Hotz.

Kulonyaka uphelileyo inkampani za-bucala zenze indzuzo engange khulu lezigidi eziphindwe kabini ( 100 billion), ngokutsho kuka Badenhorst. Eli nani liye lakhuzwa ngabo bebezimase le ngxoxo waze wathi xa eyicacisa uBadenhorst lento injalo kwihlabathi jikelele.

“Ininzi imali eyenziwa zinkampani zo-khuseleko zabucala kwihlabathi liphela”. Inkampani zabucala zokhuseleko lican-delo lesihlanu ngobukhulu ehlabathini. EMzantsi- Afrika iinkampani zabucala zinonogada abaninzi abodlula amap-olisa nabezokhuseleko bedibene, kwaye banezixhobo ngaphezu kwabo.

Kuko konke oku loka Badenhorst uthe banalo icandelo lwabo baqeshelwe ukuhlola indlela zokusebenza zo-nogada abangamashumi asithandathu. Abafundi base UCT bathe eli-nani liphantsi lwabahloli libangele ukuba I PRISA isilele ukwenza umse-benzi wayo kuba sithetha nje baphanda izityholo ezilishumi elinesibhozo ku-phela.

Abezokhuseleko lwabucala batyholwa ngokwenza unothanda kumaziko emfundo ephakamileyo

Oonogada be Vetus Schola bedlakathisa umfundi webhinqa wase UCT. Credit: GroundUp/Ashraf Hendricks

Umfundi wase UCT eziphindisela ko nogada. Credit: GroundUp/Ashraf Hendricks

El i tsha 1 - 15 November 2016

News in briefIn Taiwan

Photo: focustaiwan.tw

Labour unions say they will stage a thousands-strong rally Tuesday against what they describe as the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “unrelenting determination” to pass a controversial workweek bill. The bill, which mandates one day off every week and another “flexible” day off for which employees must be paid overtime should they work, is on the brink of entering cross-party negotiations. At a protest outside the Legislative Yuan announcing the rally, labour representatives chanted: “We reject the brutal, black-box legisla-

tive process” and called on the govern-ment to “defend 19 public holidays and ensure 123 annual days off”.

The 123 League — a national coali-tion of labor unions — demanded law-makers send the workweek bill back to committee, hold public hearings and maintain the current mandated 123 days off every year, the figure from which the group derives its name.

In Kenya

Kenya Airways pilots called off a strike following a day-long meeting between the pilots union and board officials.

The breakthrough came after assur-ance from the board and government that changes would be made to the management of the airline. The pilots were aiming to have chief executive

officer Mbuvi Ngunze and Chairman Denis Awori exit the airline over what they termed as poor management. Speaking during the press conference to announce the outcome of the talks, newly elected board member Michal Joseph said the board would in due course announce the outcome of the deal. As part of the deal, KQ also agreed not to victimize contracted staff mem-bers who took part in a go slow that led to the cancellation of six fights and de-lays on two others.

The cabin crew workers contracted by Career Directions Limited on behalf of Kenya Airways were protesting poor working conditions.

In BrazilThe chance of a strike by Petrobras

workers has become likelier with the rejection by unions of an improved pay offer from Brazil’s state oil company, ac-cording to Reuters.

Representatives of the two biggest worker confederations for the oil indus-try – FUP and FNP – turned down an offer of a 6% hike in basic salaries, up

from the 4.87% offered last month.

The stewards, who were authorized by their membership to call a strike af-ter last month’s pay offer vote, want ris-es that are closer to the 9.12% annual rate of inflation.

Petrobras – with 50,000 employees and many lucrative offshore drilling projects – is the world’s most indebted oil company and has been in a severe cost-saving mode for more than a year with asset divestment, budget cuts and voluntary redundancies all in play.

The cutbacks have also been a source of rancour with the union federations. Last year the union took strike action for two weeks in November to protest against the cuts, costing 2.29m barrels of output.

Ngu Chris Gilili

Umasipala ombaxa waseBuffalo City uzikhabela kude iingxelo zokuba uceba ukubasusa oono-

marike abathengisa kwirenki yeeteksi, eHighway, eMdantasane kwiphondo leMpuma Koloni.

Ezingxelo nezivakele kwiphepha ndaba lemihla ngemihla lase Mpuma Koloni, zibangele inkxalabo kuninzi lwa-bathengisa kule ndawo. UNtombekhaya Xengxe ngomnye othi angachaphazele-ka kakhulu lutshintsho olunokwenziwa, uthi uneminyaka engamashumi amabini anesithandathu ethengisa inyama kule ndawo kwaye wondla usapho lwam-alungu asibhozo, ngemali ayifumanayo.

“Ishishini yinto emane ibakho iphi-nde inqabe kule ndawo, kungakubi kakhulu xa umasipala engasisusa apha. Ndinomntwana endimfundisayo ngale mali ndiyenza apha, andiyazi xa ndingas-uswa apha uzakuthini na. Wenza unyaka wesibini ekholejini, uxhomekeke kum ukuze abhatale iindleko zesikolo, kunye nendawo yokuhlala,” utshilo uXengxe.

Enye into athi imenzela ubunzima ngakumbi ngabanye abantwana bakhe abadala abangaphangeliyo, nabo abax-homekeke kwakuye. “Ndingabethakala kakhulu xa ndinosuka apha ndiye kwe-nye indawo endingayaziyo.”

ULeticia Ngxola yena uthi uqale uku-thengisa eHighway ngelixa kwakusala-wula uSebe kwingingqi yase-Ciskei, kwaye sesakhe isitendi. Yena wondla abantu abathandathu ngemali ayifuma-na kwishishini lakhe.

“Siyivile into yokuba umasipala ufuna ukudiliza yonke lendawo, kwaye ingasip-hazamisa kuba sisebenza ngabantu kwe-li shishini, mhlawumbi siza kubekelwa ecaleni sibe kude kubo,” utshilo.

UVeliswa Lingaphi uthi iyamoyikisa kakhulu into yokuba beza kususwa apha. “Sinoloyiko kuba kuthi ukuthengisa apha yimpangelo, abantwana bethu aba-funda kwizikolo ezikhulu baxhomekeke kuthi. Singaluvuyela uphuhliso oluziswa ngurhulumente eHighway, kodwa sin-gakhutshelwa ngaphandle,” utshilo uL-ingaphi.

Bonke oonomarike abathengisa kwindawo yaseHighway bacula iculo elinye ngobunzima abanokuthi bajon-gane nabo, xa benokususwa kwindawo abaqhele ukusebenzela kuyo. Batyhola umasipala ngokurhuqa unyawo ekubah-languleni kwimeko abakuyo.

Enye into abayikhankanyileyo kukuba bebekhe babizwa benziswa izifundo ez-ithile ngendlela yokuphucula izakhono zabo zoshishino , kunyaka ophelileyo. Kude kuzo kuthi ga ngoku abakaphinde baxelelwe ukuba kwenzeka ntoni na ngelo phulo.

Xa sindwendela i-ofisi yonxibelelwano kulo masipala, yona icule iculo elahluki-leyo. “Nokuba ngubanina owathetha nentatheli yephepha ebelibeke ezizity-holo, zange athethe nyaniso, akukho mntu uzakususwa ngumasipala kwinda-wo athengisa kuyo,” utshilo uSibusiso Cindi isithethi salo masipala.

Into ayivezileyo kukuba umasipala unenjongo zokuphucula indlela engena eHighway, kwaye loonto kulindeleke ukuba iphazamise abathengisi abambal-

wa kule ngingqi. “Le nto izakuba yinto yethutyana ngelixa kulungiswa la ndlela, kodwa singaqinisekisa ukuba akukho mntu uzakususwa. Umasipala ubekele bucala imali ethile ukuphucula la nda-wo yoshishino yaseHighway,” wangeze ngelitshoyo uCindi.

Xa kulungiswa le ndlela ingena eHigh-way kulindeleke ukuba basuswe ok-wethutyana oomasitande/nomarike kwiindawo zabo, ukulungiselela olu tshintsho.

“Umasipala ukwanazo nezicwang-ciso zokuphucula indlela abathengisa ngayo oonomarike, ukwenzela ukuba kugcinwe umgangatho wezempilo. Ndingaqinisekisa ukuba umasipala akanaminqweno yokususa abantu kwi-indawo abathengisa kuzo, kuba siyayazi ukuba yindlela abondla ngayo iintsapho zabo,” uvale ngelitshoyo uCindi.

Iindaba zokuba kuza kususwa aban-tu eMdantsane zidizwe ngolibambela kwi-ofisi ephezulu yalo masipala uNeo Moerane. Umasipala ngokubanzi uy-azikhwebula kwezi zityholo.

Abazosuswa oonomarike eMdantsane Highway


Despite a mobile police station in the area, residents believe that crime continues

unabated

By Simosihle Apolisi

While a new mobile police station in Site C has been helpful for people wanting

to verify documents and obtain affi-davits, residents say it does nothing to prevent crime.

The mobile station was placed at the Site C shopping plaza on 27 May this year and opened by national deputy minister of police, Maggie Sotyu, who claimed that it would be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, in order to strengthen the fight against crime.

The nearest police station for Site C residents is situated in Site B, some three kilometres away.

But the mobile station does noth-ing to prevent crime in the area, say Site C residents, as rather than operat-ing around the clock, it is locked up at night, when most crime is committed.

It closes at 5pm on weekdays, at the same time the plaza closes, and at 3pm on Saturdays and Sundays. So, residents are also not protected during the crime-ridden weekend hours and remain scared to venture out after dark.

Site C resident Thabisa Mondi said

she was robbed on 20 September while on her way to work in the early morn-ing.

Mondi said she tried to report the case at the mobile police station but the caravan which served as the office was not there. Instead, a policeman was sit-ting inside a van parked at the venue.

She said he told her she needed to come back the next day if she wanted to open a case.

When she returned the next day, she said the officer in charge told her there was nothing they could do and she should just phone her cellphone service provider and block the number on her stolen phone. This was despite telling the police officer she knew the identity of the man who robbed her.

Provincial police spokerson, Noloyiso Rwexana, said the mobile unit allocated to Site C is in for repairs as it has a me-chanical fault.

Rwexana said a mobile kiosk manned by two police officials was in its place and “more than two vehicles are servic-ing the area”.

She recommended Mondi approach the Site B police station commander with her complaint so that the matter could be investigated.

She did not respond to questions as to why the mobile station at Site C did not operate around the clock as prom-ised by the deputy police minister.

Unathi Tutha

Tyres and rubbish were burnt on Swartklip Road by residents of Los Angeles informal settlement

near Driftsands recently as they were demanding that electricity be supplied to their area.

Los Angeles resident, Nosethu Balintulo, said the provision of electric-ity had been promised many times by City officials, but nothing has been de-livered.

“We have been paying R200 to con-nect electricity illegally from Driftsands formal settlements for a very long time. We know that burning roads is not a so-

lution but at least they will give us atten-tion,” said Balintulo.

She says they were told that the area is suitable for settlement in 2011 and they will be moved to Mfuleni but 5 years later they are still there.

Resident Sinethemba Bam said what was most frustrating was that their councillor never attended meetings the community had scheduled with him.

“On Sunday 9 October Themba Honono, our councillor, came here and told us he does not have an office yet

so he cannot take our grievances,” said Bam.

He said they believed Honono does not care about their problems as he stays in a “nice” place in Mfuleni.

Residents claim the provision of electricity has been promised to them many times over the last 22 years since they started living in the area. The last time, say residents, was in May when mayor Patricia de Lille made promises, but these have never materialised. Residents say before that, she made promises in November last year.

But now, instead of Los Angeles receiving electricity, it is being in-stalled in neighbouring Green Park and Sophakama.

A resident of LA, Xolani Sibonde, said they want the mayor to come and listen to their grievances, and this time they don’t want any more promises, they want to see electricity contractors work-ing in their area.

De Lille’s spokesperson Pierrinne Uys said Los Angeles is an Eskom sup-ply area and therefore the mayor can-not respond on the matter. Attempts to get a comment from councillor Themba Honono failed as he did not answer his cell phone or respond to sms.

Mobile Satellite Police Station in Site C

Mobile police station at Site C Plaza. Credit: Mzi Velapi

Lack of electricity sparks protests in Los Angeles

Promises of electricity services have been made many times but these never materialise


Frontline Community Health Workers kept in the darkBy Noluthando Matshoba

In a country that has the biggest di-vide between public and private healthcare, community careworkers

are not recognized as employees and do not enjoy labour rights and the pro-tection of SA’s labour laws.

In a gloomy room in a cinder block RDP house so cramped there is barely enough space to move his wheelchair, Masixole Sosikela, 29, looks as if he is part of the furniture.

Sosikela lost the use of his legs in a car accident three years ago and has since been confined to the small house he shares with his mother and young brother. With his mother at work and his brother at school, he spends his days alone in the house in BM Section, Greenpoint, Khayelitsha. His only day-time visitor is home community health worker, Nikezwa Bara, who comes to see him three times a week. She spends about an hour with him, washing and dressing his bedsores, emptying his catheter and changing his linen. Bara also prepares him something to eat in the kitchen and wheels him outside to enjoy a bit of sunshine.

Bara is one of 106 community health workers (CHWs) in Khayelitsha who of-fer essential health and social services to over 1,000 patients who are bed-rid-den or chronically or terminally ill. For these patients, the CHWs are a lifeline of care and company.

Unknowingly working as EPWP workers

Contracted on a six-monthly basis by the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA), a health NPO, Bara has been offering essential services to the sick, aged and disabled in the large-ly informal settlement of Greenpoint in Khayelitsha for six years, receiving R1,700 a month for 22.5 hours of work a week. What Bara doesn’t know, is that according to the provincial department of health, her employment is part of an Expanded Public Workers Programme (EPWP) implemented by various NPOs in the health sector.

Likewise, nine other community healthcare workers who are contracted to various health NPOs, said they had no idea that they were working within an EPWP.

But according to provincial health department spokesperson Monique Johnstone, all 3,253 CHWs who were working in the Western Cape as of August 2016, are employed under the EPWP, and not informing employees of this fact was in violation of the min-isterial sectoral determination govern-ing the EPWP. Contracts seen between CHWs and SACLA, as well as NPO Afrika-

Tikkun, make no men-tion of the EPWP.

However, one health NPO, listed as a health department implement-ing agency – which want-ed to vet their response before going to press –stated that the 54 CHW working under their or-ganisation are not part of the EPWP, although “most of them” had the opportunity to attend training courses offered by the EPWP.

Skills training offered

To this end, Johnstone stated R10,3m is budgeted in the current financial year for the provision of skills training to EPWP employees “to ensure that bene-ficiaries (i.e. CHWs) gain skills while they work on EPWP projects with the aim of enhancing their employment opportu-nities in social sector programmes upon exit from the EPWP projects”.

But Bara, and all other careworkers in-terviewed, say while they have received training in primary health and auxillary nursing, the training was not accredited and thus does not enhance their em-ployment prospects.

Although a contract between Afrika-Tikkun and one of their CHWs that was made available to Workers’ World makes no mention of the EPWP, Afrika-Tikkun’s media liaison, Catherine van Schoor, said that their 92 CHWs are in the EPWP and receive “lots of training” provided by “fully qualified and accred-ited trainers”.

Disparities in payment amounts are also evident. While Johnstone said provision is made for CHWs to be paid R1,886 per month for a 22.5-hour work week, the contracts in Workers’ World’s possession stipulate payments of R1,745 per month, a difference of R141, or R1,692 over the one-year period of the contract.

Lack of safety equipmentAt a meeting with nine CHWs who

work for SACLA, St Luke’s, Philani and Afrika Tikkun, only those working for Philani and Afrika Tikkun said that they are provided with masks and gloves for working with those suffering from infec-tious diseases such as TB and HIV+ pa-tients.

The CHWs working for SACLA said that they receive one pair of surgical gloves per week, which they believe they are expected to wash and reuse, and are

provided with an apron. No masks are provided. The CHWs working for St Luke’s said that they receive no safety equipment whatsoever, although St Luke’s claims CHWs are provided with masks, gloves and aprons.

Given that CHWs have to visit patients who are often living in poverty-stricken and dangerous areas, the one safety ini-tiative taken by NPOs is to ensure that they work in pairs.

While this provides some measure of safety, working conditions are tough and CHWs are continually faced with unexpected and challenging situations.

Threats to community careworkers’ safety

When she set out to do her rounds on 22 September, Bara received the ad-dress of a new patient from the Sister in charge at SACLA. Accompanied by this reporter, her usual colleague had taken the opportunity to attend a healthcare meeting. Bara had to trudge through the streets and alleyways of Greenpoint informal settlement looking for the house, putting herself in danger of be-ing mugged or attacked in the high-crime area. Local residents she spoke to said they didn’t know where to find the house, nor did they know the name of the patient she was looking for. Using her own airtime, she tried to call the pa-tient’s cellphone but it went straight to voicemail.

When she did eventually locate the home, she discovered the patient had TB and was HIV positive, conditions she was not made aware of when receiving her assignment.

Bara also had to see another patient in Greenpoint who had been sick and housebound since she suffered a stroke three years ago. Although the woman has twin sons, Bara says they don’t take care of their mother as they are in-

volved in criminal activities. As a result, Bara had to wash her, change the linen, help her with her exercises and ensure she takes her medication.

Exploitation and poverty wages

When Bara completed her duties, she had worked an hour beyond what she gets paid for, and needed to travel a further 45 minutes before getting home and taking care of her own family.

Like almost all the CHWs interviewed, Bara dreams of becoming a profession-al nurse but has no money to further her studies. Earning less than R2,000 a month to be on the frontline of com-munity care leaves her with no savings at the end of the month as she is the breadwinner in her household.

Proper accredited training within the EPWP would go some way to help-ing her, and other CHWs, achieve their dreams of contributing more fully to public healthcare and allowing new CHWs to enter the workplace.

Responses from SACLA were not forthcoming before going to print, while Philani stated they would not be able to answer questions as their media spokes-person was out of the country.

A new union, the National Union of Careworkers of South Africa (NUCWOSA), is due to officially launch in November and will take up these is-sues raised by CHWs. NUCWOSA provin-cial coordinator, Ayanda Nabe, said the union was established specifically for community care workers, home-based carers and counselors.

Nabe said the government was using CHWs as cheap labour in the healthcare system and CHWs deserved proper em-ployee status and a living wage.

She said 7,000 members had signed up across the country so far.

Photo: SACLA Facebook group

The struggle of community health workers


An outsourced company has been failing

careworkers in Gauteng

Ramatamo Wa Matamong

After protesting for three months against their employment be-ing outsourced by the Gauteng

Department of Health, community health care workers including those in Alexandra said they have given up the fight.

They eventually decided to sign up with the outsourced company, Smart Purse, because they were locked out and not allowed to work.

Smart Purse is a service provider hired by the Gauteng Department of Health to pay community health care workers. The care workers demanded not to be outsourced and to fall directly under the Department of Health’s employ so that they can have a secure job and other related benefits. One of their claims against Smart Purse was the irregular or inconsistent wage payments and some-times no pay at all.

“I’m a breadwinner of seven children. Sitting at home without work was very difficult so on the 5th of August I signed with the Smart Purse after three months on strike,” said one of the workers who asked to remain anonymous.

She said so far the money had been coming every last day of the month. She was not paid for one month and lodged a complaint. Smart Purse has since promised her the matter will be attend-ed to. She said she received her money through an e-wallet facility.

The 50-year old mother said she has been a community health care worker for 12 years and her duties include visit-ing chronic patients infected with TB or HIV to help them take their medicines. She has been allocated five families to look after at a nearby informal settle-ment called Stjwetla in Alexandra, works six hours a day Monday to Friday, and earns R2,500 a month as a stipend.

She felt very relieved on hearing that more community health workers have signed with Smart Purse and will start working on 1 November.

“This will help offload the work. There is too much work and there are only few of us,” she said.

Anna Manamela is one of the workers who didn’t sign with Smart Purse. If in-deed health workers will be given an op-portunity to sign on the 1st of November, though, she said she’ll do so.

“I’ve been without work for six

months. It’s very tough,” said the 42-year-old mother of two who has been a community health worker for 14 years. She specialises in HIV coun-selling and testing at the local clinic in Alexandra. Even though she doesn’t like to fall under Smart Purse she said that she doesn’t have a choice. “I’ll fight it inside,” she said.

Called to comment on the issues fac-ing community health care workers, pro-vincial spokesperson on health, Steve Mabona, asked to be sent an email but quickly admitted there are challenges and the department was working on re-solving them. He was yet to respond to detailed emailed questions at the time of going to print.

Smart Purse was not available com-ment. According to their website, they pride themselves as being an efficient payroll master with a flawless service record.

EditorialElitsha means “the new one” in

Xhosa. This community newspaper is produced by Workers’ World Media Productions, a labour media NGO with over 15 years’ experience in commu-nity and alternative media in South Africa. Elitsha strives to be a genu-ine community newspaper that cov-ers issues that people of Khayelitsha, Zwide, Mdantsane, Orange Farm and Alexandra townships face in their com-munities and work situation.

This is the 10th national edition. It contains stories that are of interest to you, the reader. We speak to ordinary

people about their living and working conditions.

In this edition we cover the work-ing and living conditions of community health workers. We also look at the causes of violence on university cam-puses.

If you have stories, news tip-offs or would like to advertise in Elitsha or you would like to write for the newspaper. Please contact us on 021 361 0119 or on facebook by liking our page on facebook (Elitsha News) and follow us on twitter (@Elitsha2014). You can also send us an SMS or a Whatsapp mes-sage on 083 233 8556.

Forced to sign with Smart Purse

Anna Manamela, a community care worker who said that she was willing to sign up with Smart Purse after staying at home for 6 months without job. Credit: Ramatamo Wa Matamong

Members of the National Union of Care Workers protest against salary payment delays. Credit: WWMP

The struggle of community health workers


By Landiswa Mazeka

Mzoli’s in Gugulethu is Cape Town’s most renowned tsh-isanyama, with locals and

tourists gathering in their hundreds to enjoy the braaied meat and party at-mosphere over weekends.

Now it seems Mzoli’s has some com-petition in the form of the Adwa and Wallacedene Cafes near Kraaifontein.

Braai smoke wafts across the sur-rounding streets chock-a-block with flashy cars and patrons jiving to beats kicked out by local DJs as they place their orders for chops, steak and wors grilled over open fires by Vuyani Plaatjie’s staff, who are helping him put

Kraaifontein on the map as one of the places to be seen on the weekend.

Plaatjie, who is 38-years-old, is not new to the business of selling food, hav-ing started out selling sweets to fellow pupils at Ngqebenya Primary school in Lady Frere when he was in Grade 4.

The Adwa and Wallacedene Cafe owner came to Cape Town in 1992 to continue his high school at Khayamandi High in Stellenbosch,

where he continued his entrepreneural ways by selling sweets to fellow pupils.

It was a business he continued after matriculating in 1996, turning a profit selling sweets to various schools full time until he decided to try his hand in Cape Town’s burgeoning film industry in 2005, when he joined the film and pro-duction industry as a volunteer in order to learn the ropes.

By 2007, he was permanently em-ployed as an independent filmmaker in television. But another enterprise con-tinued to call.

He resigned two years later and en-tered the tshisanyama business, first opening a barbershop which also sold grilled chicken wings at R5 a pop. An ad-ditional string to his venture was deliv-ery of his delicious chicken wings to the nearest schools.

Within a year he had expanded his barbershop into bigger premises and named it the Adwa Cafe in homage to the 1896 battle of Adwa in which Ethiopia beat back Italy’s attempts to colonise it.

Ten people are now permanently em-ployed at Adwa Cafe, with four casuals complementing the staff over the week-ends.

Then, on 30 September this year, he opened a second branch, called the Wallacedene Cafe, situated 5km away from Adwa Cafe.

“My intention is to open other branch-es in other locations like Mbekweni,” says Plaatjies.

He still offers a delivery service to peo-ple living as far afield as Stellenbosch and Bellville.

Not only do his employees benefit from his barbershop and tshisanyama operations, music DJs benefit by getting paid gigs at the Cafes to entertain cus-tomers, and local traders benefit from the increased number of people coming to the area.

Nomsa Salman lives next to the Adwa Cafe and has a roaring trade in vetkoek sales to Adwa customers who want a bit of starch to go with their meat. Salman says she is “very happy” to be a neigh-bour.

DJs and musicians are also allowed to sell their CDs to customers and staff, who are helped to widen their skills. Others, such as delivery driver, Bulelani Hessin said that he has learnt the impor-tance of interacting well with custom-ers. He is now thinking of moving on to open his own business.

Kraaifontein tshisanyama entrepreneur thrives

JOIN THE UNION NOW

Dibuseng 011 440 3708 or Ayanda 021 361 0119

ATTEND ALL UNION MEETINGS AND TAKE OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF OUR OWN UNION

Why do we have these problems?

Over the years our employer (the government) has grown the number of care workers to improve healthcare for our communities and to deal with the bigger demands on the system caused by poverty and the HIV & Aids pandemic. However, the government has recruited us as “volunteers” and many of us are outsourced to be employed by NGOs. This has meant that we are paid very low wages (stipends) and do not enjoy the workers’ rights and protections in the country’s labour laws.

The government has used us as very cheap labour in the healthcare system to save and cut costs and to do work that better paid healthcare professionals would otherwise have done. WE NEED AND DESERVE DECENT EMPLOYEE STATUS AND A LIVING WAGE!

The Need to Unite and Organise

On 23 – 26 June 2015, a national meeting was held in Johannesburg of representatives of care workers from all provinces. We decided that the best way for us to improve our situation and win our rights is to form our own care workers union. We plan to launch our union later this year (2016) with a big membership.

For now we need to organize, organize and organize and UNITE - build our national, democratic and independent union – the National Union of Care Workers of South Africa (NUCWOSA).

Let us connect and unite with each other and build structures at our workplaces and communities.

As care workers we provide a valuable service to our communities and society at large yet we are suffering

with several problems. These problems include low wages, a lack of labour rights that most

other workers have because we are treated as “volunteers”, hard and sometimes

dangerous work without health and safety protection, no social

protection and benefits like retirement funds and medical aid and unfair

contracts of employment.

We are not treated like professional healthcare workers and we deserve to be. Like all other workers, we need and deserve a living wage and decent working conditions.

NUCWOSA

Tshisanyama has become a popular business in townships across South Africa. Credit: Photos supplied

Popular Metro FM DJ, Sphectacula playing at Adwa Cafe.

Vuyani Plaatjie is the owner of two of Kraaifontein’s

tshisanyama businesses that offer more than grilled meat


By Jane Duncan First published on theconversation.com

“Burn to be heard.” This chilling statement has been doing the rounds through word of mouth

and social media on South African cam-puses in recent weeks.

The message has to be taken seri-ously. Buildings and vehicles at several universities have been burned since a new wave of protests kicked off in the middle of September 2016. The arson-ists haven’t been identified yet, but gov-ernment and university managements’ fingers are pointing at student protest-ers.

Some students have also used disrup-tive tactics to shut their campuses down until their demands for free education are met.

Universities have responded by se-curitising their campus; seeking wide-ranging interdicts against students and deploying private security guards.

How have things come to this?

Protests that are sustained over a pe-riod of time are usually part of a cycle that unfolds in interaction with the au-thorities and other protesters. A cycli-cal analysis helps us to understand the chains of cause and effect leading to dis-ruptive and even violent protests.

Social movement theorists Charles Tilly, Donatella Della Porta and Mario Diani have written extensively about why protests turn violent. Della Porta argues that movements become radi-calised by two factors: escalating polic-ing and what she calls competitive esca-lation. This is when protesters compete for space with political adversaries and other protesting groups.

If the police and private security guards are too quick to use violence – which has often been the case with the #feesmustfall protests – these in-teractions socialise the protesters into violence. Their actions create what so-ciologist William Gamson has called “in-justice frames” around the state, where the state comes to be seen as funda-mentally unjust.

State repression creates solidar-ity among movement participants, who justify the need for violence as a form of self-defence. As Della Porta puts it, vio-lence emerges from violence.

Disruptive versus violentUnfortunately, in the public debate,

disruptive and violent protests have often been conflated. But there is a dis-tinction between disruptive and violent protests. Disruptive protests involve breaching established “order”, including peacefully. Violent protests involve at-tacks on people or appreciable damage to property.

The sad reality is that the authorities

often ignore peaceful, non-disruptive protests. Outside the university context, civic organisations like Abahlali base Mjondolo have engaged in road block-ades because their more conventional protests were ignored.

What students have deduced from this is that unless the “normal” function-ing of an unequal educational system is disrupted, then it is unlikely to change.

Under the conditions prevailing at universities at the moment, disruptive protests should receive constitutional protection. This protection is supported by legislation.

The Regulation of Gatherings Act al-lows protests to be prohibited only if they cause serious disruption. Even then, the act states that municipalities and the police must consult with pro-testers before dispersing them.

What this means in the current con-text is that student sit-ins and their ef-forts to get others to join should be considered protected conduct, provid-ing they seek to persuade rather than coerce those around them.

That is not how protests are being treated at South Africa’s universities. Ill-trained private security guards have been deployed on many campuses.

In addition several universities have limited protest rights through wide-ranging interdicts that prohibit all dis-ruption. Interdicts are blunt instru-ments that prohibit particular actions on a blanket basis. This is problematic. They act as a form of prior restraint on expressive acts.

Control and competitionOther factors are at play too.

Actors within movements also com-pete with one another for influence. This happens particularly if a movement has won major gains, which was the case with #feesmustfall groups in 2015.

Recent protests suggest that sections of the student movement are compet-ing with one another to “claim” any vic-tories. Added to this has been the fact that major national political parties ap-pear to be more active in trying to exert control over “their” student formations. Some student representatives have been warned not to discuss the govern-ing African National Congress’ political leadership issues on campus.

Such behaviour erodes cross-party collaboration based on shared interests and common demands. It diminishes democratic decision making and non-sectarian approaches to movement-building. The #feesmustfall movement appears to have fallen victim to this af-fliction.

Sociologists have argued that political violence by protesters is rarely ever ad-opted overnight or consciously. Rather,

in the early stages of the protest cycle, such violence is generally unplanned, small in scale and limited in scope. It often occurs as a spontaneous reaction to an escalation of force by the police or a more general closure of democratic space.

Many protesters are frightened off by the escalating violence, but small groups begin to specialise in tactics that do not rely on mass support – such as more organised acts of violence. This splits the movement even further as many do not agree with this shift. Most significantly, these tactical decisions shift the struggle onto a terrain that is dominated overwhelmingly by the state and its repressive apparatus.

This cycle is now manifesting itself on several South African campuses. Its emergence makes the official narra-tive – last year, the student movement was noble, but this year it has lost its legitimacy and descended into violence – ring hollow.

This narrative fails to take into ac-count how official overreaction to 2015’s largely peaceful protests, and

continued overreaction this year, has escalated and radicalised the protests. From early on, universities responded to the protests by pursuing securitised ap-proaches to them. Now they are reaping the whirlwind.

At the same time, movement actors need to focus on those demands, strate-gies and tactics that build mass move-ments, and reject those that don’t. Regressive elements promoting racism, sexism, homophobia and violence need to be called out.

It is the easier route for universities to say and do “security” in response to growing campus unrest. But it is also the more simplistic road. There is enough scholarship to show that this road leads nowhere. University actors must do more to break with this self-fulfilling prophecy.

Jane Duncan is a Professor in the Department of Journalism, Film and Television, University of Johannesburg. Her new book, Protest Nation: the Right to Protest in South Africa has just been released by UKZN Press.

Why student protests in South Africa have turned violent

The Public Order Policing unit of SAPS has been heavily criticized for heavy handedness during #FeesMustFall. Credit: Cliff Shiko

The damaged security control room at CPUT Bellville campus.Credit: Monde Kula


By Ezra Makhetha-Kates

Four men are to embark on a four-day cycle tour from Ladysmith to Cape Town in a bid to raise mon-

ey to develop literacy among girls at-tending the Chumisa Primary school in Khayelitsha.

The 320km ride starting on 1 November, is in support of the Cape Town-based Thope Foundation, an NPO focused on supporting the holistic de-velopment of African girls, and the men, all of whom are from the Western Cape, are hoping to raise R100,000 for the Foundation’s work.

The money will pay for food that is provided to the children, teaching re-sources and transport for volunteers.

Thope Foundation co-ordinator, Rethabile Mashale, said that the or-ganisation exists to help girl children who are struggling to cope at school. They currently have programmes run-ning at eight primary schools but the cycle fundraiser was set to benefit the literacy centre at Chumisa Primary in Khayelitsha Site B as it was situated in one of the most disadvantaged commu-nities.

Mashale said cyclists Donavon Geysman, Siphelele Namfu, Isaac Martin

and Raafiq Kola were motivated to help the children because they themselves are family men and want to play their part as fathers.

She said that they have raised money by approaching individuals and compa-nies for sponsorship, and that people can also donate through the Zapper app which transfers payment by scanning a QR code. The app can be downloaded at zapper.com and the QR codes are on the Thope Foundation Facebook page.

The cyclists also required donations of equipment such as cycling shorts, gloves, water bottles, sunscreen and backpacks, amongst other things.

“The money that we want to raise is to help the students,” said Namfu, add-ing that the children Thope Foundation worked with were showing great aca-demic improvement.

Martin said the money they raised would be “very helpful” for the volun-teer programme.

“With volunteering we can do more and literally change the lives of other people,” he said.

The cyclists are expected to be wel-comed at Chumisa Primary at the end of their journey on 4 November.

Cyclists crank the Ks for literacy campaign

Produced by Workers’ World Media Productions with funding and support from

Editor Mzi [email protected]

To get involved with Elitsha, contact your Labour Community Media Forum in the following townships:

Alexandra (JHB) Simon Ramapuputla [email protected] 189 9132

Khayelitsha (CTN) Zwide (PE)

Lunga Guza [email protected] 458 2597

Mdantsane (EL) Anele Mbi [email protected] 908 0385

Orange Farm (JHB) Dibuseng Phaloane [email protected] 343 1950

Cyclists (R-L above) Isaac Martin, Siphele Namfu and Raafiq Kolia. Credit: Photos supplied

My personal mission for this initiative is to preach the gospel that you are already preaching and making people aware of the hard work done by Thope Foundation.

My personal mission for this initiative is to create awareness of the unequal society where gender based violence is a norm, to teach others that we as men is have a role in empowering women and girls.

My personal mission for this initiative is: to use this platform to create awareness and to advertise the good work that is done by Thope Foundation.

My personal mission for this initiative is simply to create awareness of the good work that Thope is doing, and the more you make people aware of the good work.

Meet the cyclists

ubomi bethu, amabali ethu abezokhuseleko lwabucala...

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