In response to the emerging outbreak of COVID-19, a considerable amount of effort in Khanya College has been devoted to reprogramming the work of the College so that it can respond and continue to pursue its mission of facilitating the struggles of the working class under the new conditions dictated by COVID-19. Khanya is aware that many organisations have chosen to ‘close shop’ for the duration of the current national lockdown. Further, Khanya is aware that against the background of epidemiological models, the COVID-19 pandemic will be with us for months and for even a year. For Khanya College, shutting down the institution in this context is not an historical option. Instead, ways have to be found to organise and to continue delivering programmes in the time of COVID-19, and under the specific conditions under which the working class lives.

Against this background all Khanya programmes are being redesigned to respond to COVID-19 and to find new ways of developing content and of delivering content in the short-term. In the medium term, Khanya is developing proposals on how to respond to COVID-19 in the context of its flagship programmes like the Winter School and the Jozi Book Fair, as it is clear that we cannot organise and host these events in the same way that we have in the past.

The focus of Khanya College’s efforts during this time is to ensure that working class activists are not excluded from participation in organisation, notwithstanding the fact that South African society is organised to exclude the working class in public life and determining its own destiny. These efforts form part of the COVID-19 Working Class Campaign that Khanya College is part of to combat the coronavirus. To view information about the work Khanya is currently doing, please visit the main site (click below).