The social sector of the EPWP rests on three legs of care: health (Community Health Workers), nourishment (Food Handlers), and growth and learning (ECD Practitioners). Yonela Mbubu has worked across all three legs of care. A lifetime in the care economy, in her own words.
I have experienced all our three legs of the pot of care. I worked in food handling as a waitress. I worked in community health. Now I am an ECD educator.
I teach Grade 7 English and Grade 6 Life Skills, from half past seven in the morning until 2 PM. The first thing I do is check the class registers at the office, and read the minutes of the morning meeting. Then I go to the class allocated to me on the timetable. I greet the learners, and start with daily news and a catch-up session, where all the learners take reflect on their morning activities.
At 2.30 PM I go to the creche where I volunteer at a day care centre. One of the activities is singing rhymes. One of them goes:
Ngizwa imvula, ngizwa imvula (I hear rain drops, I hear rain drops)
Wena uwuzwa, wena awuzwa? (Don’t you hear them, don’t you hear them?)
Bheka sesi manzi, bheka sesi manzi! (Look, we are wet now, look, we are wet now!)
Chapha, chapha, chapha. (Pitter patter, splash, pitter patter, splash.)
Then it is snack time, and after that a nappy change or a potty session. Nap time is at 4 PM. I write notes in the parents’ communication book, and the bags are packed and ready for transport to come and collect the learners. And my day is done.
Yonela tends to the three legged pot of care at LRS Care Workers Convergence in October 2025. Each leg represents a sector with many stories.
It is difficult to tell people that I have been exploited since my twenties. In that season of your life, you are renting, while you are having children and starting a family. You do not qualify for a bond, or for medical aid. After the age of 35, you are not recognised for training or jobs. You become stuck. Your dreams and your achievements are limited, because of the exploitation, and the austerity of our government.
I imagine a robot when I think about our achievements, our challenges and our dreams as the three legs of the EPWP care pot. Everyone starts at the red: at home, without a job, in that dark space where you start thinking, I need to look for work. You move towards the green, and you are dreaming of skills, of money, of stability. You start knocking on doors, and when one finally opens, you feel you have arrived. You have made it, into the ECD or the community health sector, or as a Food Handler.
But even when you get there, the robot still matters. You realise that the green light does not stay green. You have achieved a wage and a skill, but it is not enough, and you start to see the cracks. You question the harassment, the disrespect, and the low pay. You ask, why am I not valued for the impact I make? And that provokes you to dream again: to study, to knock on new doors, to stand up and protest the unfairness you face.
So we keep evolving, and dreaming. Whatever was once the dream becomes the starting point for another dream. Even finding that ‘unworthy’ job is an achievement, because it means we have moved, we have grown. I am delighted about my small achievement. And I ask myself: can I grow it into something bigger?
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