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

On Monday the 2nd of January 2017, a number of areas including the Qweqwe, Payne, Zimbane, Maqhinebeni, VIdgiesville, Mqanduli and the surrounding areas were hit by a severe hailstorm which left many desitute and homeless [1]. Homes, schools and churches were severely damaged and a number of people were rushed to hospital with injuries. During this time of the year this kind of weather uis expected and it is deeply worrying that everytime our Municipality is caught off guard with no contingency plan. We know that it is norm for Disaster Management to delay responding to these disasters even though they have a set budget for such. This is evident even in this case, there has not been any statement issued to declare or any information to give guidance to the affected communities like a toll free number or contact offices/persons We however, commend the Department of Health for being visible and issuing a media statement going as far as offering assistance to those injured. [1] Lightining strikes Seven people in Mthatha, Jenni Evans, News24

If our parents are robbed of their hard earned, blood sweat contribution to this administrators, then most children will loose their inheritance for education and livelihood. Remember this is not a grant but monies contributed by this employees, it is a day robbery of everything they would ever have to change the economy of their lives.

We can improve service delivery and fight corruption in our Municipality by ensuring all Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) are public and easily accessible to all. Some politicians, officials and businesses are scared about transparency, but if they aren't doing anything wrong, what have they got to hide. * This campaign by amandla.mobi is supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

We can improve service delivery and fight corruption in our Municipality by ensuring all Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) are public and easily accessible to all. Some politicians, officials and businesses are scared about transparency, but if they aren't doing anything wrong, what have they got to hide.

We can improve service delivery and fight corruption in our Municipality by ensuring all Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) are public and easily accessible to all. Some politicians, officials and businesses are scared about transparency, but if they aren't doing anything wrong, what have they got to hide. * This campaign by amandla.mobi is supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

We can improve service delivery and fight corruption in our Municipality by ensuring all Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) are public and easily accessible to all. Some politicians, officials and businesses are scared about transparency, but if they aren't doing anything wrong, what have they got to hide. * This campaign by amandla.mobi is supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

We can improve service delivery and fight corruption in our Municipality by ensuring all Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) are public and easily accessible to all. Some politicians, officials and businesses are scared about transparency, but if they aren't doing anything wrong, what have they got to hide.

We can improve service delivery and fight corruption in our Municipality by ensuring all Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) are public and easily accessible to all. Some politicians, officials and businesses are scared about transparency, but if they aren't doing anything wrong, what have they got to hide.