The University of the Western Cape Financial aid office is deliberately declining NSFAS funding for senior students who have passed 50% or more of their 2016 modules. According to NSFAS website and press releases, all students who were funded in 2016 and have passed 50% or more of their 2016 modules qualify for funding. The University of the Western Cape is saying otherwise. On 6 February 2017 Universities South Africa (USAf) issued a statement saying "students at all universities may be assured that notwithstanding the challenges experienced by NSFAS, the vast majority of students who qualify for grants will be able to register this week if they have not already done so." Fast forward to 21 March 2017 and there are confirmed cases of students at the University of Western Cape (UWC) and Durban University of technology (DUT) who are yet to register despite meeting the criteria to qualify for NSFAS. According to a commitment made by NSFAS in 2017, all first-entry students who have applied for financial aid and who come from Quintile 1, 2 and 3 schools (least privileged schools) and / or where family income is dependent upon a South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grant, qualify for financial aid. These students may, with minimal risk to universities, be admitted to the study programme for which they qualify (subject to availability of space), and also to a place of residence (subject to capacity considerations). With regard to returning students, NSFAS has undertaken to support in 2017, all students who: * Received financial aid in 2016; * Satisfied the 50% module pass requirement; * Satisfy the N+2 completion requirement; and * Have signed their 2016 NSFAS loan agreement forms.

We are deeply troubled by the continuous introduction of risky GMOs into our food and farming systems. Since its introduction into our food system in 1998, it has done nothing to address our nation’s hunger problems. Instead, we are left with polluted soil and water and loss of our superior, local farmer-bred varieties of maize. We are also extremely concerned about the political economy of seed control that Monsanto has imposed on our seed system, which utterly undermines our food sovereignty and breeds a dependency on Monsanto's industrial systems and technologies. Local land belonging to smallholder farmers in SA have already been contaminated. More GMOs will only exacerbate this situation and further erode farmers’ seed systems. We call on our government to reject Monsanto’s application and begin a real dialogue with South Africans to transition out of industrial and GM-based agriculture systems and work towards real climate resilient solutions that are ecologically sustainable, socially just and takes care of the nutritional needs of all South Africans

Allan Gray who, through various accounts, holds 15.6% of the issued shared capital of Net1. Allan Gray, similarly to other asset managers, has a publically available policy on how it incorporates sustainability considerations, such as environmental, social and governance issues, into its investment decision-making. Among the factors it lists, as being taken into account when making investment decisions, are the corporate culture and ethics of the companies it invests in. This is interesting given the unethical nature in which Net1 has been stealing from the poor through deductions made from social grant recipients. Most asset managers forget that they are the custodians of the savings of many South Africans who would be appalled to know that they own shares in Net1 which, it appears, exploits the poorest strata of society to make a profit. The Sassa saga was an opportunity for Allan Gray and other owners of Net1 to stand up and intervene in the manner in which the situation was handled by Net1 and in the pricing strategies it deployed. They might not be able to change the business model of Net1 through shareholder activism alone. They can, however, choose not to hold its shares, based on ethical considerations. If more shareholders followed this approach Net1 would be forced to change its business model. 17 The Sassa saga is more than a failure of government to look after the interests of the poor. It is a failure by corporate South Africa to do the same. Reference: Sassa Saga: How CPS cross-sells microloans, insurance and services to poor grant recipients, Magda Wierzycka for The Daily Maverick. March 7, 2017.

Swiss multinational company Roche is facing global condemnation from women living with cancer, families of people with cancer, activists, scientists, researchers and health professionals from across the world who demand that no woman go without it lifesaving breast cancer treatment because it is too expensive. On 7th February, the Fix the Patents Laws Campaign launched the Tobeka Daki Campaign for Access to Trastuzumab in loving memory of a fearless activist who lead the struggle to ensure access to breast cancer treatment for women in South Africa. Despite being prescribed trastuzumab, a WHO essential medicine for the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer, Tobeka was never able to access the treatment due to its high cost. In South Africa the annual price in the private sector is around ZAR 516,700. The few public facilities which can access trastuzumab do so at a lower price of around ZAR 211,920 per year. Both out of reach of most. But, health economists have shown that a year’s worth of trastuzumab can be produced and sold for around ZAR 3 400. Drastically less. This estimated price even includes a 50% increase above the cost of production for profit. Meanwhile Roche are posting fat profits. In 2015 Roche made US$ 8.9-billion profit (around 119 billion Rand). In the same year CEO Severin Schwan earned US$ 12-million (around 160 million Rand). It seems highly plausible that Roche could cut the price of trastuzumab dramatically and still be very profitable. Instead Roche maintains it’s high prices in any way possible. Roche holds multiple evergreened patents on trastuzumab in certain countries across the world. In South Africa, for example, multiple patents extend their monopoly until 2033. In countries where the patents have ended or do not exist, Roche is using other means to block potentially more affordable biosimilar versions coming to market. In India Roche have initiated a court challenge against the Indian regulatory body for its decision to approve Mylan’s version as a biosimilar product. In Brazil and Argentina, Roche is one of the pharmaceutical companies litigating against those governments for their attempts to use legal international safeguards to protect public health. For too long Roche has been allowed to charge exorbitant prices for these lifesaving treatments. Tobeka had one life. Her two children had one mother. We had the means to give her a chance at survival and we failed her – as we will continue to fail other women. Shame on Severin Schwan (Roche CEO) for insisting on fat profits while you could save lives by trimming your profits. Roche could have given Tobeka a chance, but instead they turned their back on her. Demand that Roche do not turn their back on all the other women across the world. #RocheGreedKills #ForTobeka www.fixthepatentlaws.org

The granting of fishing allocations makes small-scale farming entities and communities susceptible to bullying by established entities. This further perpetuates the poverty cycle with small-scale entities giving in to capital. We need to put in place sustainable models and policies that help small-scale entities thrive. We have seen how entities granted fishing allocations struggle with no guarantee of any form of tenure. This is made evident by the recent case of Buffeljags, on the Western Cape's Overberg coast and many others. Given the high poverty levels in South Africa, and with the current policies in place, small-scale farming communities will always be on the back foot and capital will always reign supreme. We must go back to the drawing board and rectify policies. The Buffeljags is a small community who rely on harvesting seaweed to make ends meet. The Department has not renewed their 10-year fishing allocation and this will plunge the community into poverty. We can't allow a government department to make decisions that negatively impact the poor.

We can't get jobs because we lack experience, we are suffering.

On average in Mzansi. a girl will miss 60 days of school because of her period [1]. And some are forced to use socks, newspapers and worse because they can’t afford sanitary pads. Over time this can cause girls to drop-out completely. If they struggle through, they often find themselves unable to fully take part in school activities. Last year, we watched as Parliament introduced Max, the flavoured condoms. While efforts aimed at reducing the rate of HIV/AIDS are commendable, we cannot ignore the plight of the girl child who loses her dignity and time for her studies for something she cannot opt out on. “You have to enable that child to go to school every day because the concern is that women are illiterate. If (not having access to) sanitary towels make girls not go to school, it should be your primary concern” ANC MP Patricia Chueu. [1] Dignity Dreams article with information on how many girls miss school a month and in a year: http://www.ngopulse.org/organisation/dignity-dreams

On average in Mzansi. a girl will miss 60 days of school because of her period [1]. And some are forced to use socks, newspapers and worse because they can’t afford sanitary pads. Over time this can cause girls to drop-out completely. If they struggle through, they often find themselves unable to fully take part in school activities. Last year, we watched as Parliament introduced Max, the flavoured condoms. While efforts aimed at reducing the rate of HIV/AIDS are commendable, we cannot ignore the plight of the girl child who loses her dignity and time for her studies for something she cannot opt out on. “You have to enable that child to go to school every day because the concern is that women are illiterate. If (not having access to) sanitary towels make girls not go to school, it should be your primary concern” ANC MP Patricia Chueu. [1] Dignity Dreams article with information on how many girls miss school a month and in a year: http://www.ngopulse.org/organisation/dignity-dreams

On average in Mzansi. a girl will miss 60 days of school because of her period [1]. And some are forced to use socks, newspapers and worse because they can’t afford sanitary pads. Over time this can cause girls to drop-out completely. If they struggle through, they often find themselves unable to fully take part in school activities. Last year, we watched as Parliament introduced Max, the flavoured condoms. While efforts aimed at reducing the rate of HIV/AIDS are commendable, we cannot ignore the plight of the girl child who loses her dignity and time for her studies for something she cannot opt out on. “You have to enable that child to go to school every day because the concern is that women are illiterate. If (not having access to) sanitary towels make girls not go to school, it should be your primary concern” ANC MP Patricia Chueu. [1] Dignity Dreams article with information on how many girls miss school a month and in a year: http://www.ngopulse.org/organisation/dignity-dreams

On average in Mzansi. a girl will miss 60 days of school because of her period [1]. And some are forced to use socks, newspapers and worse because they can’t afford sanitary pads. Over time this can cause girls to drop-out completely. If they struggle through, they often find themselves unable to fully take part in school activities. Last year, we watched as Parliament introduced Max, the flavoured condoms. While efforts aimed at reducing the rate of HIV/AIDS are commendable, we cannot ignore the plight of the girl child who loses her dignity and time for her studies for something she cannot opt out on. “You have to enable that child to go to school every day because the concern is that women are illiterate. If (not having access to) sanitary towels make girls not go to school, it should be your primary concern” ANC MP Patricia Chueu. [1] Dignity Dreams article with information on how many girls miss school a month and in a year: http://www.ngopulse.org/organisation/dignity-dreams

On 2 January 2017, a strong, beautiful and tenacious young woman, with a heart made only of gold, was taken from us. A bright light in the lives of all who knew her, this loving mother of three children, was brutally assaulted and killed by her husband in Westlake, Cape Town. This mother of three was allegedly stabbed in full view of the community by her husband and residents claim he had been abusive towards her. South Africa has a femicide rate five times higher than the global average. “Research proves that the chances of a woman being murdered by someone that she knows or is in an intimate relationship with are much higher than any other type of murder… Motives are often financial, adultery or a love-triangle, custody or a residential battle for children.” – Anni Hesselink. In the words of community leader Vusumzi Nelani “This is a very sad case. This is what happens to many women and if the court is lenient this abuse will continue so we want the court to take this case very serious.” (News24, 26/07/2017) Please take a few minutes to sign today if you can. There are witnesses and three vulnerable young children we need to protect!! If we want our voices against domestic violence to count, we need them to count in court too!! Please share this link for friends, family and colleagues to sign. Thank you very much.

150 Stellenbosch University workers were dismissed at the end 2015 after demonstrations at that university calling for the insourcing of all workers under the #EndOutSourcing banner. 88 of the 150 dismissed workers were contracted by G4S Secure Solutions. Most of the dismissed workers had been involved in landscaping and as private security staff. Following that the university placed a moratorium on outsourcing. During the Stellenbosch shack demonstrations, in an attempt to justify its inaction in resolving the matter, the university cited that it was not within its legal parameters to intervene in the matter as it was an issue between the outsourcing company and the workers, this is despite the fact that these workers contributed to the daily running of the university and logically it would be in the best interests of the university to resolve the matter amicably, this is truly astounding logic for a university that prides itself in academic excellence yet fails to exercise even the most basic intellecual exercise of logical thinking, but to expect logic and sense from the bastion of Afrikaner Nationalism would be to burden ourselves with false hope! In addition to the dismissal of the Stellenbosch Workers, 188 UWC outsourced workers contracted to the security services company, Securitas, have been dismissed. Since students of UWC waged the fight for free decolonized education and an end to outsourcing, service providers and University Managements have sought to suppress the movement by taking protesting workers to Labour courts with allegations of absconding from work. Initially, the workers had successfully won the case. Their legal team presented the undisputed truth that workers did not abscond from work but in fact stayed away because the campus was on shutdown due to reason being that the UWC refused to engage students in an honest and genuine manner. Securitas, the service provider, soon after the Court ruling embarked on a bias and illegal internal hearing chaired by a person(s) favourable to them. In this bogus hearing, charges were mischievously replaced from the originally defeated in court claims which alleged absconding to manufactured charges now of hostage. On Friday of the 13th January 2017 over 180 workers were found guilty of this false charge and were immediately dismissed. Most of the workers dismissed are bread winners to largely poor families. They have children to feed, buy uniform and schools stationary. This dismissal means that our black parents might see their children being expelled from schools due to being unable to afford registration fees. The University of the Western Cape under the leadership of Tyrone is anti-black and they have declared a war against all the black bodies which do not subscribe to their mediocre and dictatorship leading style which advances capitalist agenda. The Fees Must Fall Western Cape movement stands firm against all forms of victimisation and extends its warning to the University of the Western and the University of Stellenbosch that failure to re-instate unfairly dismissed workers will result in aggravated protests that will hinder the full functioning of both Universities. It simply cannot be that over 300 black families are displaced outside of the economy by frivolous and maliciously applied labour laws by University bureacrats in tandem with private companies. We therefore call upon all those who stand in solidarity with the student-worker aliance to put their signature in support of the reinstatement of our parents. 'We are all connected. When one arm or foot is poisoned, the whole body becomes infected.' -Suzy Kassem #BringBackTheWorkers