Articles for Pharie Sefali

Evicted woman: “I came to Cape Town to give my children a better future”

Veronica Lujabe moved to Cape Town from Lesotho because she wanted a better future for her children. This week her house in Lwandle was demolished.

Pharie Sefali

News | 5 June 2014

Miserable day for people who lost homes, but baby rumoured to be dead is alive

It’s cold and raining in Cape Town tonight. Ice particles formed on the ground outside the Nomzamo Community Hall in Strand where hundreds of residents, whose homes were demolished over the last two days, are sheltering.

Pharie Sefali and GroundUp staff

News | 4 June 2014

Community desperate as their homes are demolished

Hundreds of people were left homeless at Nomzamo settlement in Strand on Tuesday. Shacks were smashed down while their owners watched.

Pharie Sefali and Adam Armstrong

News | 4 June 2014

Young, high and dangerous: youth gangs and violence in Khayelitsha

They fight to kill - with pangas, knives and their bare hands. They don't know why the fighting began but it doesn't seem to matter. Proving your manhood doesn't require a reason.

Words: Pharie Sefali Images: Don Pinnock Editing: Guy Lamb

News | 27 May 2014

Can sport help reduce city’s violence?

Gang members and competitive sportsmen may share a “warrior gene”, according to Don Pinnock of the Usiko Trust.

Pharie Sefali

News | 23 May 2014

Eastern Cape voters explain why they voted the way they did

Three weeks after the general election, results are still being digested. GroundUp went to the Eastern Cape, to the rural settlement of Tsolo near Mthatha, and asked how and why people voted the way they did.

Pharie Sefali

News | 23 May 2014

Capricorn violence: taxi drivers killing each other

Residents from Capricorn near Muizenberg are afraid to go to work and school because of violent clashes. There appears to be a taxi war with racial overtones.

Pharie Sefali

News | 20 May 2014

Teaching Khayelitsha children computer skills

Sibongile Mbele is an Information Technology (IT) specialist from Khayelitsha. He owns a business that assists people in the township mostly with computer problems. At the same time, he tutors young people from ages five to fifteen.

Pharie Sefali

News | 13 May 2014

How I was raped in prison

Denial and a homophobic culture means rape of male prisoners by other men remains prison’s dirty secret. Pharie Sefali interviewed a young man who was raped in prison.

Pharie Sefali

News | 9 May 2014

I get upset when people say they not going to vote

Some of my friends from university say that they are not going to vote because they do not see what difference the vote will make. They say politicians are corrupt.

Pharie Sefali

Opinion | 7 May 2014

Nyanga community members beat up alleged child rapist

Last Thursday a twelve-year-old girl was raped in Nyanga, allegedly by her neighbour, in front of her grandmother.

Pharie Sefali

News | 5 May 2014

Nyanga residents angry after power cuts

Residents of Crossroads and Nyanga have slammed Eskom for not giving them any notice of power cuts which lasted several hours yesterday. But Eskom says the cuts were unplanned and residents could not be notified in advance.

Pharie Sefali

News | 30 April 2014

Celebrate Freedom Day? No thanks, I’d rather drink

While celebrations took place all over the country this week, some young people in Cape Town’s townships chose to spend Freedom Day another way.

Pharie Sefali

Opinion | 30 April 2014

UCT students grill political parties

Representatives of political parties got a grilling from UCT students last night at a debate on the university campus.

Pharie Sefali

News | 24 April 2014

Nyanga residents attack suspected TV thief

Nyanga residents are looking for a 20 year old man accused of stealing a plasma TV from his neighbour and said to be a rapist and a gangster.

Pharie Sefali

News | 23 April 2014

Elections: what people are saying

GroundUp spoke to people about the elections, asking whether they would vote, who they would vote for and why. This is the first of a series GroundUp will be running.

Mary-Anne Gontsana and Pharie Sefali

News | 16 April 2014