Feature

“Sometimes I only manage to make R10 a day just to put bread on the table, - 17-year-old boy

When you’re 14 years old, your parents normally take care of you. But Sivuyile Sibhozo from Site C Taiwan Informal Settlement in Khayelitsha has been taking care of his brother and grandmother for the past three years.

Nombulelo Damba

Feature | 23 April 2015

UCT and transformation part three: the debate over what is taught

What should and what should not be taught at our universities? The demands of the Rhodes Must Fall students include calls for major changes to the content of courses at UCT. In the third article in our series we report on some of the debates over what students are taught.

GroundUp Staff

Feature | 23 April 2015

UCT and transformation part two: the students

Is the University of Cape Town (UCT) transforming? In this, the second article in our series, we look at how the student body is changing.

GroundUp Staff

Feature | 16 April 2015

Riders of the trains

Whiteboy and Tupac are chilling on a bench in New Canada station before their usual high-octane commute to school. Whiteboy, aged 18 and in grade 11 at a former model C school in Jozi, wears a striped T-shirt, shorts and brown suede shoes. He’s smoking Dunhill Courtleigh blends. His “macala” (friend) Tupac is a year younger, with short hair, neat in school rig and black toughees (school shoes) with red laces, high as a kite on weed, with sleepy red eyes. Their excited schoolgirl fans can’t wait to see the action.

Mosa Damane

Feature | 9 April 2015

Looting in Khayelitsha: EFF blamed but denies involvement

There was chaos in Khayelitsha on Wednesday with battles between police and residents occupying land, and shops being looted. Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Khayelitsha have distanced themselves from the looting, but residents say it was led by people wearing EFF T-shirts and berets.

Text by Nombulelo Damba. Photos by Masixole Feni.

Feature | 9 April 2015

UCT and transformation: Part one

Is the University of Cape Town (UCT) transforming? What does transformation mean? In a series of articles GroundUp provides the key facts and arguments on the main points of contention facing South Africa’s oldest tertiary institution.

GroundUp Staff

Feature | 9 April 2015

Long wait for Motsepe money

Khayelitsha residents who applied for funds from the Khayelitsha Motsepe Foundation in 2013 might have to wait months for the money, says the head of the Motsepe Foundation in the Western Cape, Steve Mashalane.

Nombulelo Damba

Feature | 8 April 2015

We’re being targeted, say homeless

Homeless people in Observatory, Woodstock and Bellville have complained about a wave of law enforcement operations against them in the last two months.

Ian Broughton

Feature | 8 April 2015

What’s up with the price of bread?

Nomsa Vumazonke buys two loaves of bread every day. She lives in Philippi with her three children and four grandchildren, and after making sandwiches for them says there is nothing left for her to eat. "Bread is too expensive. It's very hard. I have to buy bread for my children," she says.

Ben Stanwix

Feature | 1 April 2015

Manenberg residents abandoned by builders

Manenberg residents who have been living in containers for the last five months while their City Council flats are renovated have been left in limbo yet again. The subcontractors responsible for the renovations packed up all their equipment and abandoned the site last week.

Barbara Maregele

Feature | 31 March 2015

Will Wolwerivier be a model for development, or the next Blikkiesdorp?

Loud barks from a multitude of dogs are what you hear when entering the small area of Wolwerivier, where 28 families live under difficult conditions.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Feature | 20 March 2015

Thanks to whistleblower, arrests imminent in massive housing fraud

The wheels of justice finally seem to be turning in relation to a huge suspected fraud in a housing scheme for the poor that is said to have cost the Vryburg municipality at least R60-million in 2008 and 2009.

Pharie Sefali and Drew Forrest for amaBhungane

Feature | 20 March 2015

Nyanga man’s salary slashed to pay for furniture he says he never bought

A Nyanga man has had more than R1,000 deducted from his salary every month since September 2013, to pay for furniture which he says he never bought.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Feature | 12 March 2015

Buyers scammed in fake Cape Flats house sales

A Mitchell’s Plain man has been making fake house sales in Delft, Mfuleni and Gugulethu, apparently scamming buyers out of tens of thousands of rands.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Feature | 9 March 2015

False Bay domestic worker paid nothing for 14 years

A 61-year-old Zimbabwean domestic worker, Gladys Mafita, claims her False Bay employer fired her without payment after 14 years.The employer is Daniel Deng, son of Francis Deng, the first ambassador of South Sudan to the United States.

Tariro Washinyira

Feature | 4 March 2015

Shack scam: Langa activist fears for her life

Langa residents are asking why a man accused of fraudulent plot sales to dozens of poor people has still not been arrested, while the activist who exposed him fears for her life.

Daneel Knoetze

Feature | 4 March 2015