Download PDFThe 24th Khanya College Winter School starts on 23 July 2023 at the House of Movements, in Johannesburg. The composition of the school this year is young post-school youth. This year the school has 63 participants from 27 organisations. The composition of the school includes Cultural Workers, Community Health Care Workers, Farm Workers, Casual Workers, Reclaimers, Social Movements, LBTQI+, Children’s Organisations etc. While the school has a diverse audience, it is important that rules, policies and protocols are laid out and followed by everyone in the school, to ensure the smooth running of the school.
On 22 June 2022, Health Minister Joe Phahla announced that South Africans no longer need to wear masks or maintain social distancing etc. However, there are still cases of Covid-19 being reported, which essentially means, we are still at risk of getting Covid-19 and dying from Covid-19-related complications. Also, the participants in the school come from different backgrounds, some have illnesses that compromise their immune system so we all must play a role in ensuring the safety of everyone in the school. This is why the school, and the House of Movements still have intact Covid-19 protocols, this means everyone who comes to the school needs to wear the masks properly and maintain social distance at all times. Participants will be provided with masks in their packs and sanitisers. Participants need to follow and respect this protocol for the safety of everyone who comes to the school. While participants will be sharing rooms, please still respect people’s privacy and their space.
In addition to Covid-19 protocols, the school will have house rules which are set to ensure that the school runs without interruptions and problems. The house rules will be shared with participants and as activists who are in the school to learn, it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that those rules are followed. These rules are set to protect everyone in the school. We must be all conscious of the space and make sure we do not behave in a way that makes other people feel uncomfortable participating in the school.
Khanya also has a strict sexual harassment policy. This policy is there to safeguard participants, in particular, women comrades and ensure the school is a safe space for them. This policy outlines that Khanya has a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment and perpetrators of sexual harassment will be kicked out of the school and banned from Khanya premises and the issue will be taken up with their organisations. The fight against capitalism cannot be won when women activists can’t participate in the struggle out of fear of being harassed. It is our collective responsibility to rid our struggles of patriarchy and there is no space in the school for patriarchy, misogyny and discrimination. Everyone is in the school because of their activism, and not as flowers of the organisations.
Participants will be added to the roaster to clean up, monitor whether other participants are maintaining Covid-19 protocols, and monitor the hotels. There will be different skills for movements, please sign up for those. We look forward to a fruitful week.
This article was submitted as part of the Imbila Yesu publication produced daily for the duration of the Winter School in 2023 (23-28 July 2023). It appeared in Edition No. 1, released on 24 July 2023.
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