Following weeks of protests demanding better policing, and a number of incidents of mob justice, a satellite police station will be opened in Masiphumelele, and seven new constables have begun working in the area.
Pasqua Heard
News | 15 October 2015
Residents of Busila near Gatyana (Willowvale) say they have lost faith in the police after two houses were set alight by unknown men in the early hours, Tuesday. Since July, four people have been killed and five houses set alight. Residents say police are failing to protect them.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 8 October 2015
“Crime is touching me; it’s eating me,” said Patricia May, standing on a stretch of vacant land between Extension 9 and Transit Camp, two neighbourhoods in the larger Grahamstown township.
Hancu Louw
News | 7 October 2015
Nearly 2,000 people braved the cold and rain to join the Unite Against Corruption march to Parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people participated in the main march in Pretoria. Smaller marches also took place in other cities, including Durban and Grahamstown.
GroundUp Staff
News | 30 September 2015
A temporary respite from violence in Masiphumelele ended today, as police and over a thousand residents clashed. Residents blocked the road to Kommetjie with burning tyres. Police used teargas, rubber bullets and arrests to disperse the protest.
Bernard Chiguvare, Masixole Feni & GroundUp staff
News | 29 September 2015
“There are so many things that rapists and communities do that feed myths and false notions about rape,” says Rape Crisis director Kathleen Dey.
Barbara Maregele
News | 28 September 2015
Blikkiesdorp residents are calling for better policing after a spike in crime in the area. Seven families have already been moved to Wolwerivier at their request by the City of Cape Town.
Barbara Maregele
News | 21 September 2015
Seven new constables will be joining Ocean View police station, which serves Ocean View, Kommetjie and Masiphumelele. This news follows a week of violence in Masiphumelele, and months of community dissatisfaction with insufficient policing in the township.
Pasqua Heard
News | 18 September 2015
Masiphumelele residents gathered in shock today around the ashes of a young man killed in a mob justice attack in Myeza Road last night. Residents have been complaining about inadequate policing in the township, which does not have its own police station.
Bernard Chiguvare and Pasqua Heard
News | 16 September 2015
On 17 August we reported how a 43-year-old woman — who we called Andiswa — was left disabled after an especially brutal rape. Readers asked how they could help. We're pleased to report that Iliso Care Society is helping out.
GroundUp Staff
Brief | 10 September 2015
Some of the top companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are flouting environmental laws and not telling their shareholders, according to a study by the Centre for Environmental Rights.
Alide Dasnois
Feature | 8 September 2015
The man was almost naked. He had burn marks on his arms. There was a sock on one of his feet and he lay facedown in the dirt. He was found dead in Mfuleni this morning after what appeared to be an act of mob justice.
Masixole Feni and Ashleigh Furlong
News | 7 September 2015
Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron and his law clerks have published a scathing report of Pollsmoor Prison after visiting the remand centre — where awaiting trial prisoners are kept — and the women's centre on 23 April. Some of their findings are consistent with those reported by GroundUp in May.
GroundUp Staff
News | 4 September 2015
In the wake of Amnesty International’s vote to adopt a policy that supports sex work decriminalisation, the Asijiki Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Sex Work was launched in Cape Town on 27 August. The coalition consists of sex workers, activists, advocates and defenders of human rights.
Ashleigh Furlong
News | 28 August 2015
Until national police minister Nathi Nhleko signs the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry recommendations, 90 percent of them cannot be implemented, according to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 26 August 2015
Around 200 people from several social justice organisations took part in a march to parliament on Tuesday, for safety, equality and justice.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 25 August 2015