04 December 2016 – JANET Munakamwe, who is a Doctoral candidate at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), at Wits University and Global Labour University(GLU) SA Alumunus, has been nominated Community Champion of the year in this year edition of the the Zimbabwe Achiever Award.
Munakamwe, is the only woman, who has been been nominated in this category with four others for outstanding work in helping the Zimbabwean community in SA.
“I am so honoured to have been nominated especially for something that I feel every Zimbabwean should just do for fellow Zimbabweans, especially, so far away from home,” says an ecstatic Munakamwe, who has been in the forefront in helping migrants especially women, who have been homeless and is actively involved in issues to do with illegal miners, most of whom are Zimbabweans.
In 2014, Munakamwe was awarded an ICDD Research fellowship at Chris Hani Institute where she did research on illegal/ informal mining in South Africa as part of her doctoral studies.
In her study, she tried to reconcile the link between the formal and informal economy through seminal findings which trace the destination of illegally mined gold. In addition, Janet has documented some of the lived experiences of illegal miners popularly known as zamazama (meaning we are trying) in her efforts her efforts to ensure that these uncelebrated workers’ voices are heard by policy makers as part of the process towards decriminalisation and transformation of their precarious (working) conditions at the hands of police.
Munakamwe, who is aDoctoral candidate at Wits is also a research fellow at Chris Hani Institute (COSATU) and has conducted studies and published some academic papers on women in trade union leadership.
She is an alumnus of the Common Purpose Leadership course and graduated in 2010. A labour and gender activist, Janet has vast experience working as an independent consultant for government, business, trade unions, civil society and international organisations in particular the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
She has also written and published numerous papers and articles on labour, gender and development and part of the editorial board of the South African Labour Bulletin and again sits on advisory boards of other civil society organisation.
Besides her work in academia Munakamwe is the Chairperson of the African Diaspora Workers Network and has worked tirelessly for the rights of disadvantaged community members who include among them women, children, the disabled and the blind including immigrants in South Africa. In addition, Janet has documented some of the lives of the aforementioned categories of people in her efforts to get these peoples’ voices heard by policy makers as part of the process towards transforming their precarious (working) lives for the better.
She is currently involved in a project with artisanal miners (popularly known as (illegal miners or ‘zamazama’). The aim of the project is to improve the working conditions and social lives of these workers.
To vote for Janet Munakamwe click here – ZimsInSA reporter
11/16/2016
