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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
IHRG also plays an advocacy role within a national, regional
and global context of deregulation, outsourcing and
casualisation of labour - trends which enable public and
private sector employers to shed responsibility forworkplace
health and safety. In this regard, IHRG is collaborating with
the Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging and its South
African partners in a campaign for decent work that is
directed particularly at vulnerable workers. Our work with
vulnerable workers includes contract cleaning workers,
community care workers, labour broker workers and farm
workers. Our advocacy work included issues relating to the
administration, enforcement and the amendment of the
health and safety legislation.
In November 2012 IHRG convened an indaba for 43
community health care workers from four provinces. The
group included home-based carers, HIV/AIDS counsellors
and Patient Care Assistants. The objective of the gathering
was to convene a networking forum where these workers
could share their experiences of work, conditions of
employment and health and safety concerns.
IHRG works in partnership with trade unions in a variety
of programmes. During 2012 IHRG was involved with
Naledi and Satawu in a project that looks at the working
conditions, organisational rights and health and safety
issues in the contract cleaning sector. Training workshops
and participatory action research projects have been
carried out with contract cleaning workers at OR Tambo
airport. IHRG is also involved in a programme with Numsa
and the German trade union confederation DGB, to build
the capacity of Numsa shop stewards and organisers to
engage with German multi-national companies in the
negotiation of workplace level agreements.
IHRG collaborates locally, nationally, regionally and globally
with other labour service organisations, non-governmental
organisations, adult educationists, occupational health
experts, various academic programmes, and health
research institutions. During 2012, IHRG collaborated with
- amongst others – Hesperian Foundation, Federatie
Nederlandse Beweging, Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund,
Naledi, Ditsela, Workers World Media Productions,
Legal Resources Centre, Labour and Enterprise Policy
Research Group and the Department of Occupational and
Environmental Health at UKZN. IHRG attended a health
and safety conference convened by the Department of
Labour in March 2012. IHRG attended the NUMSA National
Congress in June and the COSATU Provincial Congress in
the Western Cape in September 2012. IHRG also began
networking with organisations and institutions conducting
research into climate change and its impact on health.
Research activity of IHRG contributes towards the
production and distribution of a variety of popular and
accessible resources (including posters, newsletters,
research reports, workshop materials, and handbooks) for
trade unions and their members on issues of occupational
health and safety. It also produced Edition 2 of Organising
for Health and Safety – A guide for trade unions. In 2012
IHRG produced issue 8 of the Health and Safety Networker
and drafts of two DVD’s. IHRG further developed its website
www.ihrg@org.za (established in 2011) and contributed to
labour shows on community radio and television.
Centre for Infectious
Disease Epidemiology and
Research (CIDER)
The Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and
Research (CIDER) is a multi-disciplinary research group with
the following objectives:
• To conduct public health research integrating laboratory,
clinical, epidemiological, social science and health
systems research into infectious diseases that have high
priority in southern Africa (in particular HIV, tuberculosis
and sexually transmitted infections) in order to improve
the prevention and management of these diseases.
• To be a service-led research entity, maintaining very
strong links with health services at all levels, and to assist
policy makers, programme and services managers with
the implementation of the results of research.
• To be a centre of expertise in the surveillance and
monitoring of infectious diseases and infectious disease
programmes and services, and in the conduct of robust
observational research based on routine data sources.
• To provide postgraduate teaching and supervision in
epidemiology.
The Centre has a strong track record in researching
strategies for HIV prevention. Historically the Centre ran
field sites for two large multicentre HIV prevention trials,
one for a candidate vaginal microbicide, and the other
testing the efficacy of twice daily acyclovir suppressive
therapy in preventing HIV transmission among heterosexual
HIV-discordant couples in which the HIV-infected partner
is Herpes Simplex Virus-2 seropositive. Furthering the
focus on HIV prevention the Centre is developing tools
and indicators for measuring and evaluating PMTCT
programmes in resource limited settings, and is testing
novel service strategies for further improving the
effectiveness of PMTCT interventions.
A further focus of the work of the Centre is in the area of
treatment and service delivery for HIV and tuberculosis.
This encompasses an expanding portfolio of health systems
research as well as the clinical epidemiology of treatment