Message from the Board Chair and Executive Director of SECTION27

Alice L. Brown and Umunyana Rugege

Over the last 18 months, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on people around the world. Inequality has deepened and poverty has worsened, particularly in developing countries. While we have witnessed solidarity among people in South Africa, with many individuals contributing to various charities and supporting the humanitarian response to COVID-19, we have also witnessed vaccine apartheid globally. Rich countries have hoarded life-saving vaccines, and pharmaceutical companies that have developed vaccines – largely with public money – have hoarded the technology and know-how, leaving the manufacturing of vaccines in the hands of a few companies that simply cannot meet the global demand.

2020 was characterised by a difficult and fast-changing environment. Our team quickly became experts on the science of COVID-19, the public health interventions, the legal framework and the constellation of rights affected by the virus and the response to it. We launched a vaccine literacy programme when vaccines became a reality, providing accurate information to the public and combating the wave of misinformation that stubbornly persists.

We saw the health system become severely strained. In provinces such as the Eastern Cape, the system appeared to collapse. Having spent years raising the alarm about the mismanagement and lack of political will to meet the health needs of the province, this was unsurprising to us. Nonetheless, we remain committed to finding solutions to the weak health system in the Eastern Cape and other provinces.

The pandemic also reminded us that mental health has been marginalised and stigmatised for far too long. The authors of the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) found that depressive symptoms increased significantly in 2020 because of the impact of COVID-19 on people’s economic circumstances. Our work to advance mental health remains critical for the future.

Moreover, we saw the education system lose significant resources as the government pivoted to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and other COVID-19 responses. Funds that had long been promised to schools were taken from education, and specifically from the budget that was intended to fix broken school infrastructure and build safe and dignified toilets for learners. In response, our team engaged with school communities to help them ensure that both infrastructure safety and an adequate supply of PPE in schools were equally prioritised. We also published a hugely popular one-stop resource map of educational materials that enabled learners and parents to access educational materials on one platform along with calling for the zero rating of all learning materials.

In 2020, SECTION27 furthered its commitment to protecting the rights of marginalised groups, including fighting for poor children to continue to receive a school meal every day as part of the National School Nutrition Programme. This important intervention successfully ensured that 9 million schoolgoing children throughout South Africa were able to receive a daily school meal. SECTION27, together with partners Equal Education and Equal Education Law Centre, challenged the government’s astonishing move to stop this poverty-alleviating programme during school closures.

This urgent intervention led to significant legal precedents. In their article ‘The justice of eating and the obscenity of hunger’ programme heads Faranaaz Veriava and Sasha Stevenson set out the legal and political significance of the case. The High Court confirmed that children’s rights to basic education and nutrition are unqualified, and that the government’s duty to fulfil these rights is immediate. The court also affirmed that school nutrition is a component of the right to basic education. This is one of the most important victories in the history of our work.

Like all our work over the past 10 years, the school nutrition case builds on our efforts to make rights real for marginalised communities in the areas of health and basic education rights. SECTION27’s 10-year milestone amid a pandemic simply meant that we continued to push our mandate to participate in the achievement of substantive equality and social justice in South Africa.

In our anniversary year, we salute all those who contributed to the many successes of SECTION27 with their leadership, energy, creativity and commitment to human rights.

Aluta continua!

SECTION27 Board Members

2/4

Brent Botha
Board Member

Brent Botha is a director and commercial litigation lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright and head of the South African disputes practice group. He is a member of Norton Rose Fulbright’s executive management team and he served as a member of its board of directors from 2013 until 2019. Brent joined SECTION27’s board in 2018.
Dr Brian Brink
Board Member

Brian Brink is the retired chief medical officer of Anglo American and is treasurer on the SECTION27 board. He serves on the board of directors of the International Women’s Health Coalition ‘Right to Care’ in South Africa, as well as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has been at the forefront of galvanising support for treatment and prevention. He is also closely involved with a number of non-governmental organisations that are fighting the AIDS epidemic. Described as ‘a rarity in the business world’, he has for many years been leading mining giant Anglo American’s efforts to ensure proper access to good health care for workers and their families.
Justice Johan Froneman
Board Member

Justice Froneman was appointed as a justice of the Constitutional Court in 2009. He retired from the apex court in June 2020. Outside of legal practice and his judicial responsibilities, Justice Froneman taught at several universities. For five years, he was Professor Extraordinaire at Stellenbosch University where he gave lectures in Human Rights at LLM level. He attended Harvard and Oxford Universities in 1999 and 2008, respectively, in a visiting capacity. At present he is also an extraordinary professor at the University of Free State (UFS).
Shaeera Kalla
Board Member

Shaeera Kalla is an activist and a scholar. She was recognised in 2016 as one of the Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian. She holds a Master’s degree in African Studies from Oxford University, and a Bachelor of Commerce and BA Honours from the University of the Witwatersrand. Shaeera was the President of the Wits Student Representative Council and one of the many students at the forefront of the #FeesMustFall protests in 2015/16.
Elouise Kelly
Board Member

Prior to joining Universal Music Group in June 2020, Elouise Kelly worked at some of the most prominent companies locally and abroad. As a Branding, Communication and Business Strategist, she revamped content for channels, launched brands, handled budgets of up to R250 million, led various teams and successfully increased companies’ bottom-line in accordance with their objectives, including Ogilvy South Africa, Viacom, MTN Irancell, M-Net and brands within the SABC stable.
Professor Eddie Mhlanga
Board Member

Professor Eddie Mhlanga is a member of the National Committee on the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths. As director of Maternal, Child and Women’s Health for the Department of Health, Dr Mhlanga has been instrumental in implementing the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act. He is currently the Provincial Specialist of Obstetrics and Gynaecology for the Department of Health in Mpumalanga.
Nompumelelo Seme
Board Member

Nompumelelo Seme is a SECTION27 and Centre for Applied Legal Studies board member with expertise in commercial litigation. Mpumi has been a legal advisor at Eskom where she honed her expertise in commercial litigation before her current position of lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). She holds an LLB (cum laude) from WITS University, BA (English and Psychology) from WITS University and is currently pursuing her Masters in Tax Law also at WITS University.
Professor Ann Skelton
Board Member

Professor Ann Skelton is a Law Professor at the University of Pretoria, where she holds the UNESCO Chair: Education Law in Africa. She has appeared as counsel in many landmark child law cases in the South African superior courts, including 12 cases in the Constitutional Court. Ann is an internationally recognised expert in children’s rights, and has been a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child since 2017.
Nic Spaull
Board Member

Nic Spaull is an Associate Professor of Economics in the Economics Department at Stellenbosch University. His research centres on education policy in South Africa with a focus on inequality and early grade literacy and numeracy. In 2020 Nic initiated the National Income Dynamics Study Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM), a nationwide consortium of more than 30 researchers from six universities, to measure the impact of COVID-19 in South Africa. This has generated over 50 research papers in less than a year and has been cited by the President. Nic also founded ‘Funda Wande: Reading for Meaning’, an influential non-profit organisation focusing on early-grade reading and mathematics. Nic comments regularly in the media and advises numerous policymakers in government and decision-makers within philanthropies and NGOs in South Africa.
Umunyana Rugege
Executive Director

Umunyana Rugege is the Executive Director of SECTION27. She is a human rights lawyer and has been with SECTION27 since its inception in 2010. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies (magna cum laude) from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a Master’s degree from Cornell University. and an LLB from the University of Cape Town, and has clerked at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Umunyana has played a leading role in several human rights cases advancing the right to health, and works on access to medicines in particular. She has led policy development and law reform that has helped realise the right to health, particularly for vulnerable groups, and has represented patient groups in the Health Market Inquiry into the private healthcare sector. She has served on the board of a gender equality organisation and is currently a member of the Advisory Committee to the UNAIDS Executive Director. She appears regularly in the media as an expert on human rights.
Alice Brown
Board Chair

Alice L. Brown, an attorney with extensive experience in social justice philanthropy and civil rights litigation and advocacy, is the head of Sojourner, Tubman, Wells & Co. Consulting. In that capacity, she advises and writes on a broad range of topics including philanthropic giving, non-profit organization governance, leadership development, organizational effectiveness, public interest law and transformation within the South African legal profession.
In addition to her role as Chair of the board of SECTION27, Ms Brown currently serves on the boards of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Corruption Watch, and Jacana Literary Foundation. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa.
Ms Brown served nearly 20 years of leadership at the Ford Foundation, as a human rights program officer in its New York headquarters and as a program officer, Deputy Representative and then as the Foundation’s Representative for the Office for Southern Africa based in Johannesburg. During this period, she engaged in grant making in support of crucial issues including, amongst others, the promotion of human rights, social justice, the rule of law and transformation and diversity.
Earlier in her career, Ms Brown spent five years as a litigator and advocate at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), where her work and publications addressed legal aspects of housing conditions and environmental degradation in African American communities. Prior to her tenure with LDF, Ms Brown had the honor of serving as a law clerk of the late Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., a prominent and distinguished U.S. federal court judge, historian, and civil rights advocate.
A graduate of New York University School of Law (JD) and Dartmouth College (BA History), Ms Brown has been a Visiting Adjunct Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law, a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, and a Visiting Fellow at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
Mary-Ann Boakye
Board Member

Mary-Ann Boakye is a registered Chartered Accountant, working as a senior lecturer in the Department of Accounting at Walter Sisulu University. She holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree in Finance and Accounting, a Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting and a Masters in Development Finance (cum laude) from the University of Cape Town.

Sheniece Linderboom

Attorney

Nkululeko Conco

Former staff: Attorney

Sibongile Mtshelu

Executive Assistant

Sifiso Nkala

Community Mobiliser

Kuda Chimone

Head of Finance

Marcus Low

Spotlight Editor

Boitumelo Masipa

Communications officer

Cassandra Reyneke

Librarian

Anna Maluleke

Community Mobiliser

Sipho Komane

Paralegal

Solanga Milambo

Community Mobiliser

Daniel McLaren

Budget analyst

Sasha Stevenson

Head of the Health Rights Programme

Thembi Mahlathi

Paralegal

Thembi Thobekile Moyo

Receptionist

Dr Faranaaz Veriava

Head of Basic Education Rights Programme

Dolly Lebakeng

Fundraising Officer

Thokozile Mtsolongo

Community Mobiliser

Thuthukile Mbatha

Health Researcher

Rapelang Ntamu

Former staff: Multimedia communications officer

Violet Kaseke Palmer

Head of Human Resources and Administration

Alicestine October

Spotlight Deputy Editor

Bridget Mohapi

Financial and Admin clerk

Busi Mzimbili

Office Assistant

Mbali Baduza

Legal Researcher

Demichelle Petherbridge

Attorney

Motheo Brodie

Legal Researcher

Elinor Kern

Head of fundraising

Julia Chaskalson

Communications Officer

Lilian Mwaungulu

HR Assistant

Nasser Sujee

Financial Officer

Nontsikelelo Mpulo

Head of Communications

Patrick-Zaid-Mdletshe

Community Mobiliser

Rachel Thandeka Milanzi

Finance Officer

Saamiah Jardine

Procurement and administration officer

Kholofelo Mphahlele

Legal Assistant

Tendai Mafuma

Legal Researcher

Cecilia Melani

Spotlight Office Assistant

Sam Brener

Former staff: Attorney

Selby Mgadi

Community Mobiliser

Sheniece Linderboom

Attorney

Nkululeko Conco

Former staff: Attorney

Sibongile Mtshelu

Executive Assistant

Sifiso Nkala

Community Mobiliser

Kuda Chimone

Head of Finance

Marcus Low

Spotlight Editor

Boitumelo Masipa

Communications officer

Cassandra Reyneke

Librarian

Anna Maluleke

Community Mobiliser

Sipho Komane

Paralegal

Solanga Milambo

Community Mobiliser

Daniel McLaren

Budget analyst

Sasha Stevenson

Head of the Health Rights Programme

Thembi Mahlathi

Paralegal

Thembi Thobekile Moyo

Receptionist

Dr Faranaaz Veriava

Head of Basic Education Rights Programme

Dolly Lebakeng

Fundraising Officer

Thokozile Mtsolongo

Community Mobiliser

Thuthukile Mbatha

Health Researcher

Rapelang Ntamu

Former staff: Multimedia communications officer

Violet Kaseke Palmer

Head of Human Resources and Administration

Alicestine October

Spotlight Deputy Editor

Bridget Mohapi

Financial and Admin clerk

Busi Mzimbili

Office Assistant

Mbali Baduza

Legal Researcher

Demichelle Petherbridge

Attorney

Motheo Brodie

Legal Researcher

Elinor Kern

Head of fundraising

Julia Chaskalson

Communications Officer

Lilian Mwaungulu

HR Assistant

Nasser Sujee

Financial Officer

Nontsikelelo Mpulo

Head of Communications

Patrick-Zaid-Mdletshe

Community Mobiliser

Rachel Thandeka Milanzi

Finance Officer

Saamiah Jardine

Procurement and administration officer

Kholofelo Mphahlele

Legal Assistant

Tendai Mafuma

Legal Researcher

Cecilia Melani

Spotlight Office Assistant

Sam Brener

Former staff: Attorney

Selby Mgadi

Community Mobiliser

Sheniece Linderboom

Attorney

Fighting for the reinstatement of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP)

The NSNP came to a halt with the closure of schools due to COVID-19 on 18 March 2020, and the subsequent lockdown on 27 March. We took action after receiving testimony about increased levels of hunger among learners and their families due to the suspension of the NSNP, and after numerous broken promises surrounding the delivery of nutrition to learners. On 12 June, SECTION27 and the Equal Education Law Centre, representing Equal Education and the School Governing Bodies (SGBs) of two Limpopo schools, filed an urgent application in the High Court to ensure that 9 million children were fed through the feeding programme despite the lockdown.

In a judgment that vindicated the rights of learners, the court ruled that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and eight Education MECs neglected their Constitutional duties by failing to roll out the NSNP to all qualifying learners – whether those learners were back at school or at home. The court issued a structural order requiring the national and provincial departments of education to roll out the NSNP to all learners and report progress every two weeks.

The court victory turned out to be hollow, as learners who were not yet phased back into school could not access the NSNP; and secondly, on days when learners were not at school, due to rotating schedules, they did not have access to meals.

We demanded that government clearly communicate with communities to ensure food collection; the distribution of period food parcels for learners who were rotated out or learning from home and the provision of food transport so learners could collect food while remaining at home. When provinces implemented our recommended strategies, the uptake of the NSNP was significantly better. SECTION27, Equal Education and the EE Law Centre continued to monitor the roll-out of the NSNP programme throughout 2020.

In 2021, we returned to court, due to the state’s non-compliance with the court order.

The ongoing battle to eradicate pit toilets in Limpopo Schools

The case of Michael Komape, the little boy who fell into a pit toilet and drowned in 2014, brought the issue of dangerous and undignified school sanitation squarely into public focus. The fight to end pit toilets has continued for over six years. We helped the Komape family to achieve some measure of justice for the death of little Michael with a compensation award. The fight continues, however, for the eradication of all pit toilets in Limpopo schools. We have demanded a reasonable plan from the Department of Education that meets the appropriate constitutional standard. The case was heard on 6 August 2021.

We highlighted the issue of safe sanitation in schools – which continues to be an issue, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic – in an article published in the Daily Maverick on World Toilet Day, 18 November 2020.

We conducted interviews on Kaya FM, Salaam Media, EWN, Cape Town TV and eTV to commemorate this day and draw attention to continued conditions of unsafe sanitation in South African schools.

Driving health systems reform

Our work on the National Health Insurance continues to be central despite the national debate on NHI being overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic for the majority of the year.

Shortly before the national lockdown in March 2020, we convened civil society organisations to discuss a rights-based approach to the NHI law-making process.

We also partnered with Concentric Alliance on a consensus-seeking process in health. We conducted research with stakeholders in the private sector, public sector, civil society, media and academia. We heard some reports of important public/private collaboration in respect of the COVID-19 response, but at the same time there were frustrations in the private sector (particularly the hospitals) that more was not done at provincial level to facilitate engagement. Indeed, only the Western Cape government struck an agreement on sharing of resources with the private hospitals.

There are deep concerns about the lack of management capacity and corruption in the health sector and people fear this will hamper any efforts to implement health reforms.

In our view, there is an appetite to find consensus on the health reform process.

We used the COVID-19 period to draw attention to the need for health systems change, including through open letters to the private sector, the President and the Minister of Health. We wrote to the Minister recommending principles for the contracting of private health providers to ensure that such contracting would be in line with constitutional precepts (including transparency, equality and protection of the most vulnerable) and would set the stage for longer-term contracting with the sector. Our work on this issue continues.

Sasha Stevenson participated in the Special Investigating Unit/Daily Maverick Corruption in Health webinar, which focused on NHI and corruption. The webinar was a conversation between Sasha and Nicholas Crisp of the NHI Office, and was moderated by Mark Heywood.

The regulation of complementary medicines

In May, SECTION27 was back in court for the first time since the start of the lockdown, pushing back against the return of medical quacks. On 26 and 27 May, SECTION27 was in court – online – defending the right of people to have access to medicines of proven quality, safety and efficacy and argued that proper regulation of complementary medicines is necessary to protect people’s constitutional rights. In 2018, the Association of Natural Health Products (ANHP), an association of manufacturers of complementary medicines, brought a court case against the Minister of Health and South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) challenging the regulation of complementary medicines.

SECTION27 represented TAC as a friend of the court

Unfortunately, the Court did not consider TAC’s submission on the proper interpretation of medicine or the Minister’s constitutional obligation to regulate medicines for the protection of consumers. The National Department of Health has appealed the ruling. We will seek to intervene on behalf of TAC when the court hears the case.

Supporting the rights of migrants to access healthcare

SECTION27 sought justice for the unnecessary and tragic death of a child because he was turned away from emergency care due to his immigration status. A Zimbabwean national whose one-and-a-half-year-old child passed away after he swallowed rat poison was told that as a migrant, she needed to pay R5 000 or produce a birth certificate when she sought emergency health services at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. By the time they returned home to collect the birth certificate, the child had died. Cliffe Dekker Hoffmeyr represents the parents.

SECTION27 will join the case as co-defendants in a claim against the MEC of Health following the death of the child. We will be seeking compensation for the parents for the pain and suffering they have endured, as well as systemic relief for clarity around the rights of migrants to have access to healthcare.

In addition, SECTION27 provided training to doctors at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital following a request made by one of the doctors after an apparent recent crackdown against migrants by administrative staff at the hospital. The training outlined the legal framework on access to health and rights of migrants, with a particular focus on children. Following the training, many cases were referred to our office in which migrant children, most under the age of 6 years, were denied access to treatment unless large sums of money were paid. We have successfully managed to assist the parents in most of these cases.

AIDS Councils and community leadership on HIV and health

SECTION27 participated in AIDS Council Civil Society sectors and contributes to AIDS councils at local, district, provincial and national level, particularly in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. Field researchers lead civil society in these structures, and host workshops (including on HIV, SRHR and COVID-19). At the national level, we participated in SANAC meetings.

We monitored service delivery at clinics, including the COVID-19 response, availability of PPE, and access to abortion services. We secured undertakings from Hlanzeni District to resolve problems with pit toilets and the waiting area at Msogwaba Clinic. We have also worked with the HIV and AIDS/STI/TB Unit (HAST) team in Vhembe District on contraceptive stock outs in the area.

Our field researchers continue to support TAC through workshops, participation in meetings and programmes, mentoring of leadership in branches and support to branch AGMs. SECTION27 contributed to the People’s Country Operational Plan 21, an annual report by civil society working on HIV to influence PEPFAR in its prioritisation and funding of the programme in South Africa.

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Schools

During 2020, we advanced SRHR through community education, taking on a new format during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, we started a project to develop animations of the sexual reproductive health rights handbook for adolescents and the sexual violence guide for learners and parents. They can be viewed here and podcasts are available here. The animations are housed on a designated page on our website as well as on SECTION27 YouTube.

Section27 Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights

Sexual Abuse | FAQ

Section27 Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights

Let’s not make a baby | The 411 on Contraception

Section27 Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s) | Better Safe Than Sorry

Researchers Patrick Mdletshe, Thuthukile Mbatha and Motheo Brodie discussed content on sexual violence in schools and SRHR during the period of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children on community radio stations like Inanda FM and Motheo FM. Our community radio campaign included Zulu, Xhosa, Sepedi and Xitsonga programmes dealing with sexual violence, HIV, abortion, STIs and other topics.

In November, SECTION27 launched a Girls Empowerment campaign in two schools in the Vhembe district of Limpopo, with the aim of empowering learners with knowledge on SRHR. The schools are characterised by high teenage pregnancy rates. The launch was attended by 73 adolescent learners. This programme continues in 2021 with community radio interviews with learners who participated in the workshop.

Our advice office dealt with multiple complaints from young women who were turned away from public health facilities around Gauteng when seeking abortion services. During the COVID-19 lockdown period, confusion about what health services were considered ‘essential’ led to some women being turned away when seeking abortion services. We asked the Gauteng Department of Health to ensure that SRHR services were appropriately designated as ‘essential’, and a circular was published to that effect.

Abortion in Eastern and Southern Africa

UN Special Rapporteur Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng wrote the foreword for our digital publication, Abortion in East and Southern Africa. In it, Dr Mofokeng notes that the laws in many countries in the region are outdated and where there are progressive laws, there still exist systems of discrimination and oppression of young women, in particular. Activists across the region joined us in a webinar for the launch of the publication on International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September 2020.

Tuberculosis

As with many health issues, COVID-19 reprioritised resources from TB. We sought to bring this back into the spotlight given that we still have a high burden of TB in South Africa. We submitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request on behalf of Spotlight to the National Department of Health (NDOH) to request the National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey, which was completed in March 2020 but not released. Following our PAIA request, the NDOH scheduled the release of the findings on 26 October but again delayed their release. The results of the survey, which were finally made available in February 2021, revealed that of the estimated 390 000 people who fell ill with TB in 2018, only 235 652 were diagnosed. This means that an estimated 154 348 people with TB were not diagnosed. Our publication Spotlight reported extensively on the findings.

Ten of thousand of people with TB in SA not diagnosed, survey

Access to Medicines

The Fix the Patent Laws Coalition, in which SECTION27 plays a leading role, has energetically advocated for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and treatment. Alongside this, as wealthy countries bought up more than half the world’s future stocks of vaccines, SECTION27 joined global initiatives such as the People’s Vaccine Coalition and the global civil society call to support the COVID-19 patent waiver proposed by South Africa and India at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Nations have come out in support of the proposal to waiver intellectual property on vaccines (YouTube)

Nationally, we continued to advocate for the urgent finalisation of the reform of South Africa’s outdated patent laws.

Our work has included letters, media work and a petition asking the Minister of Trade and Industry to table draft legislation on patents and public health for public comment, which has been signed by more than 500 individuals and organisations and widely shared among civil society groups around the world.

Local and global solidarity in the
COVID-19 response

Our team has led international solidarity calls to the G20 requesting an equitable response to COVID-19, and to the World Health Organisation calling for a human rights approach and equitable access to health services and treatment. We have joined the People’s Vaccine Alliance and participated in advocacy relating to the TRIPS waiver of Intellectual Property rights on COVID-19 technologies, a proposal made by the South African and Indian governments. We contributed to an article in the Health and Human Rights journal calling to capacitate health through adequate funding.

Early in the pandemic, we asked the Minister of Health and the President to be transparent and share epidemiological data with the public. Thanks to our efforts, the data was subsequently made available. In addition, we have participated in the education, health and communication working groups of the C19 People’s Coalition to contribute to sharing accurate information about the pandemic. We contributed to the drafting of fact sheets on COVID-19 Myths and things to know about HIV and COVID-19. We developed a summary of COVID-19 health regulations and have written several opinion pieces on issues relating to COVID-19, ranging from law and policy to mental health and clinical trials.

The People’s Vaccine poster

Fighting for gender Justice

SECTION27’s health rights team advocated for the rights of women to be able to access sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including abortion services, during lockdown, and wrote a letter to the Minister in which we outlined circumstances in which young women were denied access to abortion services. We reminded the department of its commitment to expand the number of facilities offering abortion services and requested that the Department review its Designation protocol in terms of Section 3 of the CTOP Act so that all health facilities which have a 24-hour maternity service may terminate pregnancies of up to 12 weeks without having to go through a separate accreditation process. We also asked, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, that guidance be published which allows for the virtual prescription of self-managed medical abortion medication in circumstances where women have access to an accurate source of information and/or a trained healthcare provider.

We continued to support the Call to Action Collective, a group of civil society organisations working on gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), to popularise the new National Strategic Plan for GBVF and strengthen the development of the GBVF council. Over 12 weeks from 9 July to 23 September, we participated in discussions about the NSP and the role of civil society, and how government and others could collaborate to address gender-based violence and femicide. CALL TO ACTION VIDEO

Budgeting for basic
education rights

In order to mitigate economic damage and save lives through specific COVID-19 relief packages, the government cut funding substantially from the basic education sector. Basic education did not benefit from the relief package despite the enormous costs to the sector to ensure learners and teachers could return to schools in compliance with the COVID-19 protocols. Instead, when Parliament passed the Special Adjustments Budget (SAB) in June 2020, cuts to education infrastructure spending were the largest cuts made across government.

The SAB showed that planned Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG) spending of R6.6 billion was suspended, reducing the EIG budget available for long-term education infrastructure projects by 60%. Of this, R2.2 billion was cut completely from the EIG baseline – a 20% cut in its original budget, and redirected to “frontline” departments. A further R4.4 billion of the EIG was repurposed for COVID-19-related expenditure in schools, which was allocated towards sanitation, infrastructure, PPE, and mobile classrooms.

Remote learning

Recognising the unequal impact of lockdown on learners across the country, SECTION27 developed a ‘one-stop’ Resource Map for educational materials and identified zero-rated websites, which enabled learners and parents to access educational resources on one platform. We also called for the zero rating of all learning materials. This Resource Map has been widely circulated and well received by learners and parents.

School readiness

After a number of delays, the majority of schools reopened on 8 June 2020. SECTION27 was concerned about the lack of adequate sanitation in schools, overcrowded classrooms, an absence of sanitisers and soap and the lack of clarity surrounding the guidelines released by the Department of Basic Education. We published articles and fact sheets about school readiness and the need for compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols in the school environment. We also published a ‘day in the life of learners during Covid-19’ to help school communities prepare for the ‘new normal’.

Supporting
Community Health Workers

We have advocated for the standardisation of working conditions for Community Health Workers at the frontline of the pandemic. We have contributed to a policy brief on the role of CHWs in the health system, worked with the MEDICO network of organisations to advocate for PPE for CHWS and advised CHWs in all provinces on their working conditions.

Vaccine Literacy

Recognising the lack of knowledge about vaccines and hesitancy about their safety and effectiveness, we worked with partners on vaccine literacy infographic cards leading up to the first delivery of vaccines and their rollout in South Africa. We started compiling a list of frequently asked questions about vaccines and answered them in plain language for social media. This formed the basis for a more sustained vaccine literacy campaign in 2021.

Budgeting for socio-economic rights

Our budget analysis work has become more and more important as austerity and inequality deepen. In addition to integrating budget analysis into our health rights and education rights work, we have continued to convene partners to develop budgeting for socio-economic rights thinking. We hosted a workshop for Budget Justice Coalition member organisations on Litigating Against Austerity to discuss challenging budget policies which violate people’s rights. We also planned the Imali Yesizwe – Our Nation’s Money, developed with BJC to inform a ‘human rights-based budget framework’, to challenge the prevailing narrative of ‘zero-based budgeting’ which is focused on cutting budgets with little regard for socio-economic rights.

Support package favours business not the poor: BJC

Climate Justice and health

SECTION27 resolved to take the threats posed by climate change seriously and expand our work to include the intersections between climate justice, health and education.

We worked with the Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) on advocating, educating, training and mobilising around a just transition and transformative climate justice agenda. On 22 April 2020, CJC hosted a webinar on the multi-faceted nature of a just transition amid COVID-19. The ‘Just Us and the Climate‘ podcast, which seeks to bring climate justice issues into the public discourse, is hosted by members of the Coalition.

C19 Health Working Group

SECTION27 resolved to take the threats posed by climate change seriously and expand our work to include the intersections between climate justice, health and education.

We worked with the Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) on advocating, educating, training and mobilising around a just transition and transformative climate justice agenda. On 22 April 2020, CJC hosted a webinar on the multi-faceted nature of a just transition amidst COVID-19. The “Just Us and the Climate” podcast which seeks to bring climate justice issues into the public discourse, is hosted by members of the Coalition.

Corruption in Health

SECTION27 remains a member of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum (HSACF). The Gauteng Department of Health referred corruption in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the HSACF for investigation, which led to the removal, of the then-Gauteng MEC for Health.

The SIU report found that there has been up to R2 billion in irregular expenditure on PPE in Gauteng alone. Other reports that emerged prompted World Health Organisation Secretary General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to declare that corrupt practices around medical safety gear for COVID-19 health workers deprives health workers of appropriate PPE and threatens not only their lives but also the lives of their patients.

Health access in the Eastern Cape

SECTION27, as the co-ordinator of the Eastern Cape Health Crisis Action Coalition (ECHCAC), highlighted the serious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the already weakened Eastern Cape health system. SECTION27 joined calls by the Treatment Action Campaign for the removal of then-MEC for Health Nomakhosazana Meth and Superintendent General Thobile Mbengashe following repeated reports of a failure to provide critical health services to people across the province.

Members of the SECTION27 team used the COVID-19 pandemic to re-imagine opportunities to address health systems in a series of articles published in Spotlight. The series also offered a chance to reflect on the guiding objectives of the work of the Coalition.

Imali Yethu coalition for open budgets

The Imali Yethu coalition continues to lobby the National Treasury on budget transparency and participation. We are leading the development of a Phase Two of the Vulekamali.gov.za project by developing a concept note which is based on inputs from civil society organisations that are leaders in their respective fields. Treasury has provisionally committed to funding the project in the next financial year. The coalition has demanded that Treasury officials upload provincial budgets since mid-2019.

Stop Stock Outs Project

SECTION27 is a member of the Steering Committee for the Stop Stock Outs Project (SSP), a consortium which addresses reporting, diagnosis and resolution of stock outs of medication in the public sector. During this period, the SSP continued to monitor stocks of medicines and expanded its scope to include monitoring of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers.

62

SSP conducted a snap survey in which it found that 62% of health facilities reported at least one stock out of PPE

44

44% of health facilities reported at least one stock out (contraceptives, 2nd-line ART, vaccines)

39

39% of health facilities reported shortages (stock for less than one month)

56

56% of health facilities reported giving patients smaller supplies of ARVs and TB medications.

These findings were reported to the Department of Health. When we followed up, 94% of the PPE cases and 52% of the essential medicines cases had been resolved within a week of reporting.

Thought leadership

Economics and Human Rights

SECTION27 has partnered with the Institute for Economic Justice and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights (based in New York) on a project looking at the intersection of Economics and Human Rights. A fact sheet was developed entitled Budgeting for Human Rights during COVID-19: ‘The Duty to Use the Maximum Available Resources during the COVID-19 Pandemic’.

The Institute for Economic Justice, SECTION27 and The Centre for Economic and Social Rights jointly convened a conference on Economics and Human Rights on 11 and 12 November 2020, launched with a separate panel discussion on 9 November 2020. The conference was well attended and the SECTION27 leadership contributed substantially to the conceptualisation, organisation and facilitation of the conference. Many ideas were shared and documented about how to integrate a human rights framework into economic policy formulation and evaluation. The long-term aim of the project is to develop a community of economists and human rights advocates who can bring the best of each other’s disciplines together to inform research and advocacy campaigns for social and economic justice. We published a report based on the lessons learnt during the project.

Broadening our influence

The head of our health rights programme, Sasha Stevenson, is on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on social behaviour. She also presented at the Open Society Foundation seminar on COVID-19 in Africa. Executive Director Umunyana Rugege was appointed to the UNAIDS Advisory Committee on access to medicines. Patrick Mdletshe was appointed to the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) vaccine coordinating committee, which coordinates and monitors the implementation and vaccination of people in that province.

SECTION27 Media

Online engagement and media advocacy

SECTION27 received 1 417 media mentions throughout the year. The issues driving coverage were access to COVID-19 vaccines, and the National School Nutrition Programme.

TOTAL combined monitoring units for SECTION27: 1 Jan – 31 Dec 2020

18%

PRINT | 249

22%

BROADCAST | 309

60%

ONLINE | 857

Our Facebook following grew to 17 967. Our Twitter following grew to 41 700. Organic growth on our platforms is stable. We implemented a digital marketing campaign on LinkedIn which has already seen our following on this platform grow to nearly 900 followers. Instagram is emerging as a strong news-sharing platform and we aim to take advantage of this by tailoring our news content to suit the medium. Our following on Instagram has grown to 1 650. Similarly, LinkedIn is a useful tool in our effort to drive our thought leadership in the areas of health and education rights.

Our newsletter is an avenue for supporters to keep up to date with our work and for the media to source story angles. We have used this channel to report on our campaigns.

Spotlight publication

Spotlight published 275 original articles in 2020. The online publication produces more articles than any of the other journalism entities specialising in healthcare in South Africa – this while maintaining high journalistic standards. Spotlight secured agreements with News24, Daily Maverick, and others which amplified the reach of the articles produced almost 10-fold. From the science of how COVID-19 impacts the lungs, to the trade-offs between a National State of Disaster and new proposed regulations in terms of the National Health Act, and from questions over how medical devices are regulated to front-line reports from community healthcare workers, Spotlight has continued to throw the net wide.

While much of Spotlight’s output remains COVID-19-related, we took a decision in July 2020 to again start doing more HIV, TB, healthcare system and healthcare reform reporting and analysis. This grew from a realisation that even though COVID-19 is extremely serious, it is quite possible that more people will die of TB in 2020 than of COVID-19. At the same time, critically important healthcare policy and reform processes remain in progress. Our guiding principle is to do public-interest journalism that both empowers readers and holds those in power accountable.

Some positive feedback: “Spotlight is one of the media stakeholders we hold in high regard – you remind us of our role and you keep us accountable. Any critique or vote of confidence from Spotlight is received with serious consideration by us.” – Nelson Dlamini, Acting Head of Communications at the South African National AIDS Council.

Makangwane Secondary School: A lesson in treating learners with dignity

By Faranaaz Veriava• 15 January 2020

Read More

What the law says on the Parktown drowning tragedy

By Faranaaz Veriava• 21 January 2020

Read More

It’s time to rethink our strategies for securing socio-economic justice

By Faranaaz Veriava and Sasha Stevenson• 13 February 2020

Read More

To avoid another Parktown Boys school camp tragedy, better regulation is required

By Faranaaz Veriava• 12 March 2020

Read More

Drastic measures in our universities need not silence students’ concerns

By Motheo Brodie and Mila Harding• 18 March 2020

Read More

Education must continue throughout the pandemic

By Faranaaz Veriava• 29 March 2020

Read More

Finding money to fight Covid-19: Transparency and participation are the bottom lines

By Zukiswa Kota, Sam Waterhouse and Julia Chaskalson• 15 April 2020

Read More

Learning in the time of Covid-19: Equitable support during school closures desperately needed

By Motheo Brodie, Rone McFarlane & Nurina Ally• 21 April 2020

Read More

Back to School – Is now the right time?

By Faranaaz Veriava & Nurina Ally• 7 May 2020

Read More

The challenges of remote online learning in higher education and the missing middle

By Mila Harding and Motheo Brodie• 8 June 2020

Read More

Sanitation crisis: One Limpopo school scores a critical but temporary victory

By Sheniece Linderboom and Julia Chaskalson• 10 June 2020

Read More

School feeding court case: The justice of eating and the obscenity of hunger

By Faranaaz Veriava and Sasha Stevenson• 19 July 2020

Read More

Education spending is falling and the Covid-19 budget has slashed it further

By Julia Chaskalson, Hopolang Selebalo and Daniel McLaren• 31 July 2020

Read More

Climate crisis: Our young people deserve better

By Gabriel Klaasen, Francina Nkosi, Motheo Brodie, Yasmine Luhandjula and Alex Lenferna• 24 September 2020

Read More

Finding Arth in the archives: Lessons learnt from former chief justice Arthur Chaskalson

By Julia Lazar Chaskalson• 22 September 2020

Read More

Breaching the digital divide: Textbooks are essential if learners hope to pass

By Motheo Brodie and Mila Harding• 6 October 2020

Read More

Young activists speak on climate crisis and the impact on education

By Boitumelo Masipa Motheo Brodie Mbali Baduza• 12 October 2020

Read More

Interrogating the responsibilities of education authorities to ensure schools are safe

By Demichelle Petherbridge and Julia Chaskalson• 12 November 2020

Read More

Sustainable school sanitation: We need more than quick fixes and empty promises

By Julia Chaskalson and Boitumelo Masipa• 17 November 2020

Read More

Hungry children: Basic education sector budget challenges for nutrition programme

By Julia Chaskalson• 19 November 2020

Read More

Our people writing for Spotlight

IN DEPTH: What does a COVID-19 National State of Disaster mean for rights?

20 March 2020 | Ektaa Deochand and Mbalenhle Baduza

Read More

COVID-19: Giving meaning to “social solidarity” through mental health support

25 March 2020 | Julia Chaskalson

COVID-19: Minister Mkhize is responsible for coordinating with private sector

3 April 2020 | Nkululeko Conco and Tendai Mafuma

COVID-19: The kids are not all right

17 April 2020 | Kholofelo Mphahlele

Read More

COVID-19: Community Healthcare Workers are crucial to SA’s response

20 April 2020 | Nontsikelelo Mpulo and Tendai Mafuma

Read More

COVID-19: What the lockdown means for sexual and reproductive health services

22 April 2020 | Thuthukile Mbatha and Tendai Mafuma

Read More

Op-ed: Why SECTION27 and TAC are involved in a court case about complementary medicines

28 May 2020 | Tendai Mafuma and Julia Chaskalson

The dreadful effects of lockdown on access to sexual and reproductive health services

31 July 2020 | Thuthukile Mbatha

Read More

OPINION: The Eastern Cape health crisis is nothing new

23 July 2020 | Nontsikelelo Mpulo

Read More

Opinion: When civil society can’t do its work, adherence to HIV treatment dips.

30 November 2020 | Annah Maluleke and Solanga Milambo

Read More

Opinion: What PPE graft means for NHI

9 September 2020 | Sasha Stevenson

Read More

Reimagining healthcare in the Eastern Cape: Better spending can improve emergency medical services in Eastern Cape

27 October 2020 | Nontsikelelo Mpulo and Thokozile Mtsolongo

Opinion: Why fixing South Africa’s patent laws is necessary in the fight against HIV

27 November 2020 | Umunyana Rugege

Read More

Reimagining healthcare in the Eastern Cape: Back to Basics is the right medicine to fix stock outs

27 November 2020 | Tendai Mafuma and Ruth Dube

Read More

Reimagining health in the Eastern Cape: As budgets shrink, it is more important than ever to strengthen primary healthcare

9 December 2020 | Ektaa Deochand, Russell Rensburg and Daniel McLaren

Read More

Profiling SECTION27 people

SECTION27 Executive Director Umunyana Rugege was profiled in the Social Justice Initiative (SJI) web series on women in the social justice sector.

Learn More

Umunyana Rugege was also interviewed on 702’s Across the Desk: Legal Eagles, by Clement Manyathela.

Learn More

Sasha Stevenson was profiled as a Maverick Citizen Friday Activist.

Learn More

Patrick Mdletshe graduated as a Lifelong Atlantic Fellow, having completed the Tekano fellowship in health equity programme.

Thuthukile Mbatha was named one of Inside Education’s 100 South African Shining Stars and was also featured on the African Diversity and Inclusion Centre’s list of 40 Influential Youth in Africa.

Learn More

Faranaaz Veriava was profiled as a Maverick Citizen Friday Activist.

Learn More

Annah Maluleke was elected the Provincial Chairperson of TAC Limpopo.

Webinars

To celebrate SECTION27’s 10-year anniversary, we organised a webinar titled “Social justice in a time of crisis”. Daily Maverick Associate Editor Ferial Haffajee moderated the session, which included Umunyana Rugege, Thabang Pooe, Sha’ista Goga and Francois Venter. Over 360 people registered and 167 attended the webinar, which we live streamed on Facebook. This reached an additional 1,026 people, was viewed 440 times and shared 6 times.

Analytics of our webinars:

The role of civil society in ensuring the right to basic education during the COVID-19 pandemic: 223 registrants, 108 attendees, 17 replay attendees.
The parlous state of poverty eradication: human rights and austerity: 281 registrants, 144 live attendees, 43 replay attendees, 111 Youtube views

Addressing child hunger and food insecurity: The National School Nutrition Programme and beyond: 204 registrants, 97 live attendees, 36 replay attendees, 30 Youtube views
Civil society discussion with Dikgang Moseneke: 309 registrations, 126 live attendees.
Abortion in ESA: 117 registrants, 66 live attendees, 10 replay attendees.
Privacy in the pandemic: the (mostly) untold story of digital contact tracing in South Africa: 341 registrants, 76 live attendees, 28 replay attendees.

Visit our website for recordings of the webinars.

ADVICE OFFICE

Following the opening of schools, the advice office received complaints from refugee and migrant parents and learners about exclusions due to lack of proper documentation or payment of fees.

After our involvement in the Ncube case, we received over 50 referrals of refugees denied access to healthcare services due to lack of documentation and/or payments demanded in advance for various procedures. We are assisting these clients.

Our partnership with Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) continues, with assistance to SECTION27 clients in 120 matters.