Refugees and organisations working with them in the Western Cape say they were not informed with adequate time nor consulted by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) about the closure of its Bellville office for refugee travel and applications for identity documents.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 2 November 2015
About 100 people gathered in front of the Grahamstown City Hall to protest against the xenophobic violence that has hit the town and surrounding townships for more than a week.
By Hancu Louw
News | 30 October 2015
In the blistering hot conference room of the Masifunde Education and Development Project Trust, 14 women with determined calm put together a statement: 'The police have told us that we must not go ahead with our planned protest at the City Hall on Friday as they cannot guarantee our safety. We cannot and will not back down'. The Voices of the Foreigner’s Wives represent a large number of women still too afraid to leave their homes after the spate of xenophobic violence that shook Grahamstown a week ago.
Hancu Louw
News | 29 October 2015
On Monday, panicked applicants who had not yet received their Zimbabwean Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) started queuing outside the ABSA building in central Cape Town for help.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 8 October 2015
Virginia Sibanda, like thousands of youth across South Africa in November 2014, was hunched over a desk, pen in hand, taking her matric exams. Her years of accumulated academic trophies and certificates culminated in these papers. She had attended tutoring sessions, practiced the past exams, and had applied to universities to pursue her dream of studying medicine.
Sarita Pillay
Feature | 1 October 2015
When Flavina walks the streets of Delft, with her long earrings, nose piercing and colourful clothes, people turn around to stare. Tall, elegant and feminine, Flavina used to be Flavier. Born as a male in Burundi 33 years ago, she came to South Africa to live openly as a woman.
Juliette Garms
News | 22 September 2015
Zimbabweans living in South Africa are feeling the pinch of the steep fall of the rand against the US dollar. Because they are earning rands, they are able to send less money home.
Bernard Chiguvare
News | 14 September 2015
Fanuel (not his real name) teaches at a high school in Gaetsewe District in Northern Cape Province. He says he was last paid in June 2015 because his Zimbabwe Special Permit (ZSP) renewal application to the Department of Home Affairs is still pending. He appears to be one of dozens of foreign nationals in a similar position.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 11 September 2015
Saeed Furaa arrived in South Africa in 1998 after fleeing Somalia where he had worked as a shepherd. Against the backdrop of xenophobic violence in April, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said that foreigners needed to share their business practices with local business owners. Yet this is exactly what Furaa and other Somalis have been doing.
Yumna Mohamed
News | 7 September 2015
The phrasing of the Refugee Amendment Bill calls into question the commitment of the Department of Home Affairs to uphold its obligations under the UN Refugee Convention, write Aleck Kuhudzai and Deborah Won of the Agency for Refugee Education, Skills Training and Advocacy (ARESTA).
Aleck Kuhudzai and Deborah Won
Opinion | 2 September 2015
The promise by Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba that rejected applications for Zimbabwean Special Permits are to be reviewed has been welcomed.
Bernard Chiguvare
Brief | 1 September 2015
The cost of sending money across national borders has been falling rapidly over the last ten years, everywhere in the world, but Sub-Saharan Africa is the most expensive region, and sending money from South Africa to neighbouring countries appears to carry the highest costs of all.
Ben Stanwix and Tariro Washinyira
News | 24 August 2015
On 13 August 2015, Potchefstroom police station cells security officer Buisanang Malefane told GroundUp on the phone that Malvern and Hamilton Mugwagwa, who are in their custody, have no right to appear before a magistrate because they are unlawfully in the country. They were arrested on 5 August 2015 at a roadblock in Potchefstroom on their way from Cape Town back to Zimbabwe.
Tariro Washinyira
Brief | 14 August 2015
Six Zimbabwean men have accused a Stikland trucking company of dismissing them for having joined the Motor Transport Workers’ Union of South Africa (MTWU). They accuse the company of exploitation and ill treatment, and claim they are owed pay.
Tariro Washinyira
Feature | 6 August 2015
After the 2008 xenophobic attacks which left 62 people dead and thousands displaced and homeless, the attention of South Africans shifted back to the many other social issues that plague South Africa’s conscience. Urgency was lost and prevention of xenophobia and violence became mundane.
Marike Keller
Opinion | 5 August 2015
The immigrant rights group People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) is concerned that hundreds of Zimbabweans are being told to leave South Africa imminently.
Bernard Chiguvare
News | 4 August 2015