workers

Through the training of local healthcare workers and community members, the Choice Trust has made accessing primary healthcare easier for people living in rural Tzaneen in Limpopo.

Another group of South African health workers, comprising nurses and paramedics, are flying to Sierra Leone, where they will join other agencies in combating the Ebola outbreak and treating people infected with the virus.

In Africa, only 3% of the world's healthcare workers tend to 24% of the global disease burden. To help bridge the skills divide, the University of Cape Town offers programmes aimed at African students who want to make a difference in their home countries. Here are some of their stories.

South Africa was shocked in 2009 when five cleaners at Free State University were subjected to a racist "initiation" ritual. Today, not only has the university turned its reputation around, it has also helped the five workers start their own company - and awarded them a four-year contract.

The government's Isibindi outreach programme, which deploys trained community-based child and youth care workers to provide support and protection to vulnerable children and families across South Africa, has helped nearly 90 000 children in its first year of operation.

South Africa's famous wine farms were founded and built on slavery, and are still suffering the effects of this terrible legacy. But Solms-Delta, a farm in the beautiful Franschhoek valley, has put in place various mechanisms to build a truly equal industry, while paying respect to the past.

Endless strikes, and bargaining tactics characterised by violence and intimidation, are damaging both to workers' own interests and to the economy, President Jacob Zuma told a Workers' Day rally at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Thursday.