GroundUp 5-11 December is Published

Featured Story - News

Asylum seekers struggle as FNB freezes their accounts

Asylum seekers in Cape Town are struggling because their First National Bank (FNB) accounts have been frozen. The bank insists on seeing unexpired asylum documents every three to six months to keep bank accounts active. Many asylum seekers have to wait up to six months for their documents to be approved by Home Affairs and end up not being able to provide the documents FNB insists upon. Tariro Washinyira

News

GroundUp TV starts 11 December

GroundUp TV produces documentary inserts based on indivuduals, groups or organisations based in your community. Our first series will feature people living in and around Richards Bay, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. Watch the show on CTV Wednesdays at 19h45, 1KZN TV Wednesdays at 19h15, and Bay TV on Tuesdays at 18h15 starting 11 December. GroundUp Editor

Township beauty pageants: empowering or sexist?

Township beauty pageants are extremely popular. On Saturday Sexee Simplicities ran a pageant in Du Noon. But are these competitions sexist and demeaning or do they actually empower women? Mihle Pike and GroundUp staff

Councillor spends nine days in prison for “doing his job”

Anele Yawa is a proportional representative councillor in Uitenhage. In August he spent nine days in prison. He alleges his only crime was to do his job. Mary-Jane Matsolo

Gangsterism continues as 21 teenagers arrested in Khayelitsha

In a week\xe2\x80\x99s time a group of teenagers will make their second appearance in the Khayelitsha Magistrate\xe2\x80\x99s Court after being arrested for public violence and possession of dangerous weapons, as the gangsterism problem rages on in the township. Mary-Anne Gontsana

“Government can't spend more money on HIV/AIDS” - Zille

\xe2\x80\x9cGovernment cannot spend any more money on HIV and Aids,\xe2\x80\x9d said Premier Helen Zille at a public hearing meeting on health, HIV/AIDS and TB service delivery at the Mew Way Hall in Khayelitsha on 3 December. Mary-Jane Matsolo

Nyanga hip hop band rises “like a rose out of concrete”

Generation X is a hip hop group from Zwelitsha in Nyanga, Cape Town. Nokubonga Yawa

Young Mowbray fashion designer sells clothes on Facebook

Kayla Kim Meiring is the founder of Fro, a company that started off selling vintage clothing but now sells Meiring's own homespun popular clothes. Margo Fortune and Nokubonga Yawa

South African students at forefront of massive astronomy project

Mpati Ramatsoku and Moses Mogotsi are two South African PhD students who are being funded to work on one of the most exciting science projects of the decade: the Square Kilometre Array. Tessa Gooding

Sport

Lakey enjoys playing for cup winning Bloemfontein Celtic

Bloemfontein Celtic won the Telkom Knockout for the first time on Saturday when they beat Mamelodi Sundowns 1-0. GroundUp interviewed Celtic's 21-year old left wing from Athlone, Lyle Lakey. Margo Fortune

Opinion

Some clarity - and more arms deal murk

A small part of the murk surrounding South Africa\xe2\x80\x99s multi-billion dollar arms deal cleared slightly, but only to reveal still greater depths to be plumbed. Terry Bell