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

URGENT ATTENTION: HERMANUS MIDDLE CLASS AFFORDABLE HOUSING We have great concern that our needs are not being understood as they are not being recognized. We request your urgent attention to this as the IDP for the next 5 years is in the process of being developed. Our needs must be catered for. We are looking for you to support land identification and allocation for middle class housing that is affordable in Hermanus close to Zwelihle, transport and our places of work. This is NOT GAP Housing. It is a totally different model. Our Needs: We, the Hermanus Middle Class Housing Committee represent over 200 middle class professionals living in Zwelihle and working in Hermanus who simply need: 1. To live in a home that is not one room and is made from bricks and mortar (instead of often a zinc shack). 2. To have the option of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes with their own yard where our children can play safely out of the traffic. 3. To have the option to buy already developed units. 4. Different repayment models, besides outright purchase as a bonded house subsidy houses 5. To be part of an integrated development plan that is not built on an Apartheid model. We need to enter the “normal” property market. 6. To be fully consulted with regards and future proposals. Our needs are NOT GAP housing. We are NOT looking for FREE housing. We earn well and are willing to pay for something we can afford. We will apply for bonds. We want something much more than an RDP or GAP house. BUT we cannot afford the hugely inflated property and land prices in and around Hermanus. They say there is no land in Hermanus but land sale are out for tender.Hermanus has become probably the most unequal town of its size in South Africa. The wealthy have their spacious properties and the poor are stuck in townships bursting at the seams. Hermanus properties and rentals at a reasonable monthly payment for middle class people in any area are simply not available. Middle Class people are forced to live in squalor while they can afford more. The people included in this ‘middle class’ classification include there are many educators, health workers, Correctional services,municipal employees and other professionals, who will soon move out of Hermanus to find acceptable housing in other places, if they cannot get affordable accommodation. Already there is a problem at schools with teacher posts vacant as young people don’t want to live here. Obviously there are business owners who also have no viable options for creating homes for themselves.

The Jabulani Views residents' committee has been in talks with the Madulammoho Housing Association for years to prevent evictions which date back to 2013. The underhanded dealings by Madulammoho Housing Association in approaching the courts to get an interdict against the residents' committee show that the association is hellbent on putting families on the streets. We cannot allow this injustice to occur under our watch.

Creating this impression of coloureds which is insulting to say the least influences the perception of an entire community which takes us straight back to apartheid days where coloured people are treated as lesser human beings. The author is not apologetic and the publisher should never have published such a badly researched generalisation selling it as coloured culture and creating such a negative impression.

The information, particularly about Coloured people in South Africa is defamatory and racist. The information is ill informed and dangerous in creating assumptions about millions of South Africans. The publisher Paula Marais has taken no responsibility for the chapter by saying other people wrote it and it was verified by people of "that" culture, further exposing her attitude towards accountability.

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.

Furthermore, when one makes an application for NSFAS one is required to issue payment records of all the people in one's household, and the dependents of those people. This is to help NSFAS detect your finances for the month yet they don't consider the monthly cost of a single person, ultimately rejecting the funding application. The Minister of Basic Education announced that the 2016 matric class was the largest in many years. Some students applying for NSFAS have come forward saying that they have not received responses at all. What does this mean? And will students who are rejected receive communication informing them of such? Education is important, & fees are high. We all deserver quality education #EducationForAll

According to research, millions of girls, mostly underprivileged in rural and township areas, lose out on school days as a result of having to stay home during their monthly period, for fear of being humiliated by not having proper sanitary protection. Added to this is the cost of buying pads, which many of us take for granted, but is for many, just too expensive. It also affects the reproductive health of these girls as some go extremes such as using newspaper and even cow dung. This is simply something we cannot overlook, menstruation is a natural process no girl can help and should not be a reason they do not attend school and fall behind on their studies.

An architect of apartheid should not be honoured as the long term effects of the Verwoerd administration are still being dealt with, and the country is still healing from the evil acts of this man. The name triggers bad memories, of suffering and loss. We cannot change history, but we can make South Africa a better place to live in.

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

It's not the first time we've said "Asinamali". Many of our brothers and sisters haven't registered till today. Some where on Nsfas last year and some applied for it last year but till today they haven't received any confirmation or rejection of funding. With most Institutions closing their registration doors this week many are left stranded. We all want a bright future and help out at home, so let's help one another to go back to school this year. Sign this petition, let's circulate it and let our voices be heard.

Just recently, the body of 22-year-old LGBTQ activist Noluvo Swelindawo was found near the N2 highway in Driftsands, a community near Khayelitsha. She had been shot in an alleged hate crime. It is in this light this, and many other cases of ongoing hate crimes against the LGBTI community that we welcome Cabinet’s approval to publish the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill for public comment. The Bill tackles a number of highly complex issues that require consultation with those most affected by the changes - if it is to achieve its stated aims to prevent and combat deaths like Noluvo's - and a proper consultation process takes time. We have waited for many years for the public release of the bill, and it is of utmost importance that the public consultation period allows civil society and the public in general to thoroughly and meaningfully engage with the bill and its potentially far-reaching provisions. After it has taken government nearly four years to draft the Bill, it is alarming that the public has been given a mere five weeks (until 1 December 2016) with a short extension over the holiday season (to 31 January 2017) to comment thereon. If the purpose is to craft an effective bill, the state needs to commit to coordinate robust public engagement and undertake in a process of deep reflection to ensure that the bill that is passed is the best bill possible. The current timeline does allow us to attempt to reach this ideal. As such, we are calling on the Department of Justice (DoJ) to extend the deadline for public comment to the 30 June 2017. We further request clear and detailed information on DoJ’s plan for convening extensive public consultations with representatives from civil society, non-governmental and community-based organisations and interested individuals on the draft bill.