Health and housing activists fight passionately for their respective constituencies

24 Dec 2024

A women’s reproductive health warrior and an advocate for affordable housing for impoverished people in Cape Town do groundbreaking work in their fields.

Victoria Satchwell

Victoria Satchwell is a trailblazer in reproductive healthcare and a staunch advocate for women’s rights in South Africa. As the leader of Abortion Support South Africa, she has dedicated herself to dismantling barriers to safe and legal abortion services in a country where stigma, misinformation and limited access still jeopardise women’s health and autonomy. Recognising the gaps in the healthcare system, Satchwell launched a telemedical abortion service in February 2023 to ensure that women, regardless of their geographic location or social circumstances, can access the care they need.

The organisation provides online consultations to women seeking abortions and connects them to licensed healthcare professionals registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. This innovative model not only ensures compliance with South Africa’s abortion laws, but also provides a safe, confidential and supportive space for women to make empowered decisions about their reproductive health.

Satchwell’s work is particularly impactful in a country where unsafe abortions contribute significantly to maternal mortality. Her unwavering commitment to reproductive justice makes her a true community hero who ensures that women throughout South Africa can exercise their right to safe and dignified healthcare.

Nkosikhona Swartbooi

Nkosikhona Swartbooi is a long-time activist and community organiser whose focus is on housing and land rights. He sees his fight for housing as a matter of human dignity, rooted in his own experience of growing up in a shack in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, alongside his grandparents, brothers and sisters.

Over the course of his career as an activist, he has held leadership positions at housing rights law centre Ndifuna Ukwazi and the Khayelitsha-based Social Justice Coalition, and is a founding member of Reclaim the City, a social movement campaigning for affordable housing in well-located areas in Cape Town. During his time with Reclaim the City, he and his colleagues led a series of campaigns against unjust evictions and slow housing reforms in the inner city.

Swartbooi was a key figure in Mother City, a documentary directed by Miki Redelinghuys and investigative journalist Pearlie Joubert. It headlined the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival in mid-2024. The film hones in on the housing crisis in Cape Town, following the efforts of Swartbooi and other activists to push government agencies to deliver on promises of adequate housing for the city’s most vulnerable. DM

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Maverick Citizen

Victoria Satchwell

Nkosikhona Swartbooi