Shackdwellers from the original settlement in Marikana, Philippi, are celebrating a court interdict which will protect them from being arbitrarily evicted “through the back door”. Interdicts secured by landowners and municipalities are supposed to prohibit further settlement. Yet they are often so vague that they allow for people who have already settled to be removed.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 1 December 2014
The police, civil society and Khayelitsha community activists are beginning to work together to give effect to the commission of inquiry into policing's recommendations. Here's an update on progress so far, and plans for next year.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 28 November 2014
“No more lip services, we want action. No more boardroom activism, no more!” shouted thousands of activists as they marched to parliament today.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 27 November 2014
A man was injured when police fired rubber bullets at a crowd of about a thousand asylum seekers earlier today at the Home Affairs Temporary Refugee Centre on Cape Town’s foreshore. Witnesses say that a nine-month-old baby was also injured.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 27 November 2014
Lack of mattresses, a leaking roof, lack of hot water and insufficient access to medical treatment: Pollsmoor’s facility for awaiting trial prisoners has been slammed by civil society organisations for what they call “several concerns regarding conditions of detention at the facility.”
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 27 November 2014
Andaleeb Rinquest remembers the moment she accepted, with certainty, the imminence of her own death.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 26 November 2014
This week, witnesses began testifying in the sentencing hearing of Angy Peter, Isaac Mbadu, Azola Dayimani and Christopher Dina.
Johnnie Isaac
News | 25 November 2014
Mahlubandile Mdingi lay dead for seven hours on a street corner in Bardale extension, Mfuleni, before the health department’s pathology services took his body away.
Johnnie Isaac and GroundUp staff
News | 25 November 2014
Thirteen workers from a farm in Philippi have accused their employer of contract breaches, unfair dismissal and abuse. But farm owner Edgar Meyer denies the allegations, and says that the proper dismissal process was followed.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 24 November 2014
The health care workers who put their lives at risk to fight Ebola should be honoured, not quarantined, writes Kathryn Stinson, who recently returned from Sierra Leone.
Kathryn Stinson
Opinion | 20 November 2014
The 7th annual Irene Grootboom Memorial Dialogues, which explore the continuation of Cape Town’s “spatial apartheid”, are underway. On Tuesday night, the focus was on the spate of shack evictions around the city this year, and the correlation between poor, densely populated areas and traffic deaths and education outcomes.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 19 November 2014
Santonio Jonkers let out a sigh of frustration as he was told for the third time that his court case was postponed, this time till next year.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
Brief | 13 November 2014
Members of the Treatment Action Campaign and residents marched today in Nyanga to protest about poor health services in Nyanga and surrounding townships.
Zintle Swana
News | 12 November 2014
Over a million orphans and abused, neglected, and abandoned children in South Africa are falling through the cracks of an overburdened foster care system.
Joyce Xi
Feature | 12 November 2014
A year ago, Ntombikayise Matyumza of Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape started a Facebook page aimed at gay and lesbian youth. Today she has more than 14,000 followers across the country.
Pharie Sefali
News | 12 November 2014
Disabled Site C resident Vincent Gaelejwe, 43, lives in a one-roomed shack and has nowhere to keep the portable toilet supplied by the City of Cape Town. Instead, he limps to his neighbour’s house every day to use the portable toilet there.
Zintle Swana
News | 11 November 2014