Chapter 2 Criminalizing Community Healthcare Workers: The Unsung Heroes

• Pages: 42-59
• Author: Ektaa Deochand

Criminalizing Community

Healthcare Workers:

The Unsung Heroes

Ektaa Deochand

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43

Criminalizing Community Healthcare Workers: The Unsung Heroes

The drive from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein was

long and dry. My throat was also dry, as my mind searched for a way

to break the bad news to our clients, a group of community healthcare

workers (CHWs). My colleagues and I were on our way to tell them we

did not have a good chance of bringing a claim for unlawful arrest and

detention against the Minister of Police after they were arrested during

a peaceful protest.

I was new to my organization, SECTION27. One of my first as-

signed cases took me out of the socioeconomic rights litigation arena

I had come from and thrown me into the political world of health ac-

tivism and corruption. I trained in the direct use of the law as a clear

and mighty tool to uphold human rights. I learned that the law was

just the entry point, and that people demanding the full entitlements

promised by it was the true catalyst for social change. SECTION27’s

closest partner organization is the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC),

a community-based organization founded by people living with HIV/

AIDS. TAC changed the face of health care access in South Africa and

globally through the combination of civil disobedience, mobilization,

and litigation. It successfully compelled the South African government

to provide life-saving antiretroviral treatment to those living with HIV

who could not afford treatment. Working closely with TAC, I had to

learn how to adapt to working on the ground, and how to respond to a

range of intersecting sociopolitical issues.

In South Africa, protest has historically been used as a form of re-

sistance during the struggle against apartheid. After democracy was

put in place, protests continued to be used as a way for people with

little access to formal complaint channels to demonstrate their dis-

satisfaction with the state’s failure to deliver an adequate standard of

living. Regionally, protests on the African continent have largely been

credited with helping to bring about democratic shifts during the 1980s

and 1990s. The past decade has seen a rapid surge in protest once more