Professor Ramneek Ahluwalia, had the privilege of signing a MOU with EC DOH and MEC Meth during the recent vaccine drive at Midlands College. The close partnership will assist HH to expand primary health snd support services across all rural, and peri urban campuses within PSET across EC.

The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, will tomorrow, Thursday, 17 September 2020 visit the Zululand District as part of the Cabinet’s deployment of Ministers and Deputy Ministers as District Champions of various municipalities.

Minister Nzimande is deployed to Zululand, along with KwaZulu-Natal Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC Bheki Ntuli and Zululand District Municipality Mayor Cllr TD Buthelezi.

The visit will consider amongst others, the district COVID-19 response plans, interventions to eradicate gender-based violence, infrastructure and skills development in the region.

Minister Nzimande will during the visit also launch the Higher Health District Campus Health and Wellness roving fleet of mobile clinics to provide primary health care to underserved TVET, CET colleges as well as rural and disadvantaged University Campuses. This service will ensure that the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation increases its capacity to provide health services to our post school education and training institutions.

The District Development Model (DDM) is a new integrated planning model that government is using to institutionalise an integrated, district-based, development approach aimed at fast-tracking service delivery and ensuring that municipalities work together, and are adequately supported and resourced to carry out their mandate.

The DDM is a vehicle to ensure that service delivery is refocused and implementation strengthened through a well-coordinated and coherent national programme of action. In this regard, the team of experts will contribute positively to the implementation of key interventions. This integrated plans implemented will go a long way to eradicate inefficiencies and duplications caused by spheres of government operating in silos.

Members of the media are invited to join the Minister, the MEC and the Mayors as follows:

Date:            Thursday, 17 September 2020
Time:            10:00
Venue:         Zululand District Municipality, Council Chambers, B400, Galane Street, Ulundi

Members of the media are advised to confirm their attendance by contacting Ishmael Mnisi at 0660378859, Seema Ramnarain at 083 388 3100.

Views raised by youth delegates during “She Conquers” dialogue at HEAIDS National Youth Confeence: click here

Youth delegates at the HEAIDS Conference confronted government about a range of issues during the “She Conquers Dialogue” From economic challenges, lack of healthcare services at TVET colleges to sexual and gender based violence, they left nothing out. Watch the entire dialogue here

Ms. Managa Pillay, HEAIDS’ Technical Advisor in the CEO’s office is currently attending the 2018 UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Leaders Forum in Edmonton, Canada. Edmonton is co-hosting the event with the United Nations, which connects more than 250 people from 25 countries in an effort to make public spaces safer around the world. Managa Pillay is representing HEAIDS with the aim to strengthen our organisations’ continuing work in the field of women empowerment and gender based violence (GBV). She brings her technical expertise from her extensive work in managing the drafting of the first ever GBV policy for institutions of higher learning.

The keynote speaker at the conference, author and facilitator Jay Pitter, spoke about the connections between urban planning and social justice. Her key recommendations outline that:

1. Statistics need to be linked to the real life stories and experiences of women
2. There needs to be sustainable bridging of domestic and public spaces
3. She emphasised that street based public education is effective as opposed to closed boardrooms.

The conference will be wrapped up today.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) officially launched its Inclusivity Policy for Sexual Orientation. “The policy promotes UCT’s commitment towards a culture that has zero-tolerance towards all forms of discrimination” states Dr Sianne Alves (Director of the Office for Inclusivity & Change, UCT). The aims to ensure consistent engagement between students and staff and create an environment that respects and celebrates inclusion of sexually diverse staff and student on campus.

Under the policy, academic staff and tutors are encouraged to use content and language that is inclusive, neutral and non-discriminatory. The policy suggests, as an example, that instead of using language that assumes every household has a mother and a father, it would be more inclusive to refer to parent/s; or talk about diverse families, which will signal that heterosexual and queer partnerships are equally valid.

In support of UCT’s transformation mandate the policy makes reference to four functional areas of the university namely: teaching practice, communication and media, institutional culture and service provision.

Find policy here

Back Chat: Economically empowering young women

 The unequal power dynamics based on gender have been well documented in South Africa resulting in our alarming incidents of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide. Underlying these power dynamics are structural and legal frameworks that see women at the bottom of the socio-economic pie.

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), through the Higher Education and Training Health, Wellness and Development Centre (HEAIDS) held a BackChat with Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training.

Under the theme: “Building State Capacity to meet the economic, social and judicial challenges facing women post-apartheid” the BackChat will focued on the public service and its relationship with women, young women in particular. The conversation, which was attended by approximately 50 students unpacked the challenges of a women-centred developmental state’ with the view to addressing issues of capacity, representatively and gender-based consciousness 

Participants raised many issues ranging from women and access to land, economic opportunity, cultural constraints for true empowerment and the lack of support from SAPS. Please find the live video streamed here-https://www.facebook.com/heaids/

The Higher Education and Training HIV/ AIDS programme (HEAIDS) welcomes ex Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Mduduzi Manana’s resignation from his position. As HEAIDS programme we strongly condemn all forms of sexual and gender based violence and believe that all citizens should be equal in front of the law.

We would like to include that when we talk about Sexual and Gender Based Violence in our sector we include any forms of violence against sexually diverse, transgender and gender diverse peoples. HEAIDS’s women’s, men and LGBTQI empowerment programs are developed to support these ends.

During the HEAIDS Sexual and Gender based violence dialogue, Ms. Criselda Kananda Dudumashe made comments that were hurtful to the transgender community. We are highly disappointed by these remarks. HEAIDS condemns these utterances and has relieved Ms. Dudumashe of her duties as HEAIDS ambassador. In this context, HEAIDS further extends sincerest apologies to everyone affected by these remarks.

HEAIDS continues to be committed to its mandate to ensure that youth and young people passing through our sector within all our 400 campuses countrywide are healthy and competent to take their rightful place in contributing to the economic growth of our country. We remain steadfast in our duty to mitigate the HIV/AIDS, TB, STI pandemic within the post-schooling sector.

For any further media enquiries, please contact:

Kind Regards,

Ms Luxolo Matomela
HEAIDS Communications Manager
Email luxolo@usaf.ac.za | Web: www.heaids.org.za
Tel: +27 12 030 2025 | Mob: +27 81 598 5001

Safety and wellness of students and youth – with a focus on GBV prevention, took centre stage at a sector meeting organised by the Higher Education and Training Health Wellness and Development Centre (HEAIDS). Speaking to guests and stakeholders – among them vice chancellors and principals of 26 universities and 50 TVET colleges, youth, health and development agencies, business leaders and the UN fraternity – Dr Naledi Pandor, the Minister of High Education and Training spoke of the forward-looking, prosperous and healthy “next 30 years”.

 Minister Pandor said: “Comprehensive and innovative health and wellness programmes, along with holistic development of students, are absolutely essential to the effective operation of the higher education and to the welfare of our student population.“We must ensure that we are not only throwing open the doors of learning to admit more students. Our task is to see that the vast majority walk out of the same doors with a qualification in hand.”

The Minister’s sense of urgency to invest in young people’s tertiary education and see more of them complete the studies they begin is underscored by several trends:

• About a half of students who enter a tertiary institution drop out early and fail to obtain a qualification – entailing a major waste of finance and talent.
• The latest national unemployment statistics indicate that not even one in two people aged 15-34 are employed – while often being the ones responsible for sustaining several dependants.
• HIV, TB, STIs, gender-based violence, alcohol and drugs, unplanned pregnancy and mental health issues affect the student’s ability to sustain their studies and complete tertiary education.
• The onset of the 4th industrial revolution where technology and artificial intelligence both help and hinder the human role in the workplace requires the future-proofing of education so it can equip students with skills that will be useful in the next 3-4 decades.

Reflecting on August being Women’s Month in South Africa, Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women said: “It is imperative that we organise a cohesive, inter-departmental solution to the scourge of GBV in our society and institutions of higher learning. We cannot continue in a world where the power dynamics are structured to leave the girl child and non-gender conforming individuals at the bottom of the socio-economic pile. Now is the time for a pragmatic solution to be implemented with immediate effect.”

Dr Ramneek Ahluwalia, the CEO of HEAIDS said the centre was established in the late 1990s, when HIV looked invincible. “With concerted focus, endurance, resources and collaborations, the infections stabilised and we’re beginning to see reduced infection rates in HIV as well as TB and improved health outcomes. Now we must have an equal commitment and plan to meet other social and developmental challenges faced by students and our sector.” A clear priority is to prevent rape and address other forms of gender-based violence towards students and staff.

Dr Ahluwalia provided an update on the comprehensive GBV policy framework for the higher education and training sector, saying that it would be issued imminently for public comment. The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has mandated HEAIDS as the implementing agency of the framework, once finalised. In preparation, they had already initiated planning, resourcing and aligning with other parties involved in responses to GBV. “That is partly what our meeting is about – streamlining the work of several government departments, experts, funding streams, implementing organisations and the tertiary community itself in order to ensure we have integrated programmes for healthy, educated and successful youth – because tomorrow matters today,” concluded Dr Ahluwalia.