Long Trek to Education for City Students and other stories

We have made improvements to the GroundUp site this week. Please take a look at the front page: http://www.groundup.org.za. Our top story this week is a beautifully designed photo essay. It is also the first article we've translated into Xhosa. We welcome your feedback. Email: info [at] groundup.org.za

Featured stories

Long Trek to Education for City Students

Every morning students have to hitchhike across Ou Kaapse Weg to get to a school far away. Yet there are better resourced schools a few kilometres from where they live.

Thembela Ntongana

After decades in Walmer Estate, residents face eviction

Sixteen shack-dwellers, including four children, will be left homeless when the sheriff enforces an eviction order in Walmer Estate this week.

Daneel Knoetze

Reports

Union calls for R2,500 minimum wage for domestic workers

Domestic workers are calling for the minimum wage to be set at R2,500 a month when the Department of Labour announces the annual minimum wage increase in a few week\xe2\x80\x99s time.

Thembela Ntongana and Zintle Swana

Dancers rally to support Christopher Kindo

South Africa\xe2\x80\x99s dance community has come together to support prize-winning Cape Town choreographer and dancer Christopher Kindo who is battling cancer.

Lea Bork

Keeping children safe in traffic

Posters have been put up in four high-risk areas of the city reminding motorists to be aware of child pedestrians in traffic.

Thembela Ntongana

Putting bread - and chicken - on the table

Nosisa Bhomela is one of 12 Khayelitsha women who slaughter, pluck and clean chickens in exchange for chicken heads and feet to sell and take home for their meals.

Johnnie Isaac

Battle over stipends in public works programme

Bambanani is an organisation that provides community safety. It operates as a public works programme under the auspices of the Department of Community and Safety. But some of their employees —or volunteers, depending on your perspective— are frustrated with the stipends they receive.

Thembela Ntongana

Mfuleni\xe2\x80\x99s homemade beer brewer

Bukelwa Qebeyi moved to Mfuleni from the Eastern Cape in 1994 hoping to find a job, but like many others she never found one. So she decided to make a living from what she knew best\xe2\x80\x94brewing traditional African beer.

Joyce Xi

Siqalo portaloo cleaners protest

Protesting portaloo cleaners from Siqalo informal settlement blocked Vanguard Drive during rush hour traffic on Friday morning. They claim that their health is being compromised by inadequate protective equipment and the failure of their employer to provide them with inoculation against disease - a requirement of their contracts.

Daneel Knoetze

How a groundbreaking clinic is helping men deal with HIV

You enter the Ivan Toms Centre for Men\xe2\x80\x99s Health via a quiet road on the side of Woodstock Hospital. Despite the modest surroundings that superficially look no different to any other clinic, this is a pioneering experiment in public health.

Zintle Swana

Residents march for essential services

The City of Cape Town has been given 14 working days to respond to a memorandum of demands from the residents of Marikana, Rolihlahla Park and Klipfontein informal settlements.

Johnnie Isaac

Opinion and analysis

Ebola: what we need to do

On her return from Sierra Leone, epidemiologist Kathryn Stinson explains what must be done to manage the Ebola epidemic.

Kathryn Stinson

Why I have resigned from the board of HCI

On 26 October, former Minister of Public Enterprises Barbara Hogan resigned from the board of Hosken Consolidated Investments, which owns etv. Here is her resignation letter.

Barbara Hogan

etv: emails show who really runs the show

A credibility crisis in South Africa\xe2\x80\x99s independent media is unfolding this week, writes Patrick Bond.

Patrick Bond

Government Adjusts the Budget: Why it Matters for Service Delivery

The Adjustment Budget got very little coverage last week, but it is vital to understand it, explain Carlene van der Westhuizen and Thokozile Madonko.

Carlene van der Westhuizen and Thokozile Madonko

Who is to blame for the PO rot

The strike bound South African Post Office (Sapo) has been badly damaged. And not by greedy workers and belligerent unions, but by mismanagement, corruption and a total lack of planning and foresight. The strike in its eleventh week is not a cause, but a symptom of the malaise.

Terry Bell

Police: the facts behind the Commissioner\xe2\x80\x99s \xe2\x80\x9cgood story\xe2\x80\x9d

Parliament\xe2\x80\x99s Portfolio Committee on Policing should ask police management some tough questions, writes Zackie Achmat in the second in a series of articles on policing.

Zackie Achmat