From protests against President Jacob Zuma to children doing yoga, here are some of the most interesting moments we caught on camera in the first half of the year
The first half of 2017 has been turbulent. Across the country, tens of thousands marched against President Jacob Zuma. Lives were lost in a storm that shook Cape Town. A fire engulfed the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement. We also lost struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada, a wonderful man of great integrity.
The Western Cape is in the grips of its worst drought in recent history. There have been many marches and protests – against and for immigration, over water, electricity, education, housing, shack demolitions, transport and health-care. Trains and buildings have been torched.
We haven’t only reported doom and gloom. Our photographers captured learners attending their first day of school; children experiencing the joy of yoga on International Meditation Day, and Muslims searching for the new moon to mark the end of Ramadan. We also met furry friends at the Mdzananda Animal Clinic, Khayelitsha.
A Grade R student cries after her parents leave during her first day of school at the Isiphiwo Public Primary in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on 11 January 2017 - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpA young boy stands outside an abandoned house in the now ghost town of Dingleton in the Northern Cape on 16 January 2017. Kumba mine has been trying to buy the land, but 25 families have refused to leave until they receive adequate compensation. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpElube Mwalwen from Malawi surveys the damage done to the room she rented in a house that was set alight during a vigilante attack in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, on 12 February 2017. The community was hit by violence as residents claim their community is being overrun by drugs and prostitution - Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpThabiso Tshepe sells fruit and vegetables at his brother’s stand in the Marikana informal settlement in Philippi East, Cape Town, on 14 February 2017. - Masixole Feni / GroundUpSonwabile Manziwa poses with his dog ‘Danger’ at the Mdzananda Animal Clinic in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on 21 February 2017 - Masixole Feni / GroundUpPolice isolate a group of protesters after an anti-immigrant march in Sunnyside, Pretoria, on 24 February 2017. Police arrested the entire group and found drugs on one of them. - Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpMinister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini appeared before Parliament’s Standing Committee On Public Accounts (SCOPA) in Parliament’s Old Assembly in Cape Town on 7 March 2017. For months, the social grants system has been under scrutiny. Dlamini was asked at SCOPA to explain her department’s actions which flew in the face of a Constitutional Court order. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpA fire engulfed Mandela Park Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay on 11 March 2017. The fire left two dead and hundreds homeless. - Aletta Harrison / GroundUpReclaim the City supporters outside an occupation at the Woodstock Hospital in Cape Town on 27 March 2017. Supporters also occupied the Helen Bowden Nurses’ Home in protest against the private sale of the Tafelberg property in Sea Point. Reclaim the City said the Tafelberg site should be used for affordable social housing. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpChildren playing in Elsie’s River, Cape Town, on 28 March 2017. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpA woman with a wreath of flowers walks past the casket of Ahmed Kathrada before the start of the final Muslim prayer at his funeral in Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg on 29 March 2017. Kathrada ‘Kathy’ was a South African anti-apartheid activist and close confidant of Nelson Mandela. - Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpFibreglass structures in which residents of Komponi in East Londonlive. 4 April, 2017 - Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik / GroundUpCapetonians turned out in numbers on 6 April at Ahmed Kathrada’s memorial at St George’s Cathedral to demand the end of Jacob Zuma’s presidency. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpTens of thousands march to Parliament demanding the resignation of South African President Jacob Zuma on 7 April 2017. The march was triggered by the axing of finance minister Pravin Gordhan. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpA man protesting against President Jacob Zuma sits on a sculpture at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Thousands of people took part in an anti-Zuma demonstration on 12 April 2017. - Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpCommuters hang on a Khayelitsha-bound train in Cape Town on 20 April 2017 - Mandla Mnyakama / GroundUpThembeka Sam with her three-year-old nephew Mivuyo Patuluko in Beacon Bay, East London, on 2 May 2017. Patuluko uses a wheelchair and has epilepsy. He does not speak. When his mother passed away in 2015, his aunt took him in. - Manqulo Nyakombi / GroundUpA man uses a sling shot to launch stones at a police Nyala during a protest in Finetown, Johannesburg, on 10 May 2017. Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpTheewaterskloof Dam in drought stricken Western Cape on 11 May 2017. At the time this picture was taken, the Western Cape’s dam levels were at just 21.2%. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpMetro Police Gang and Drug Unit search two young men during an operation in Ravensmead, Cape Town on 15 May 2017. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpResidents protest during a land occupation in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on 22 May 2017. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUpA resident is seen with a cat that was killed during evictions in the Bekezela informal settlement in Newtown, Johannesburg, on 2 June 2017. Hundreds of people were forcefully removed and left on the streets after the Red Ants evicted them from their homes. - Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpA woman navigates her way across a flooded pathway during a storm in Europa, Gugulethu, Cape Town, on 7 June 2017. At least five people died and many lost their homes. - Mandla Mnyakama / GroundUpCoco snuggles up near a brazier that his owner, Lillian Snyders, made outside her home during winter in Macassar Village, Cape Town, on 8 June 2017 - Yazeed Kamaldien / GroundUpResidents block roads with stones and burning tyres during a protest over a threat to cut off water and electricity in Davidsonville, Johannesburg, on 12 June 2017. - Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpGrade one pupils stood ready with white roses which they placed at the Hector Pieterson Memorial during Youth Day celebrations in Soweto on 16 June 2017. - Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpA youth meditates during International Yoga Day at the Lenasia Cricket Stadium in Johannesburg on 21 June 2017. - Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUpHundreds of Muslims gather in Sea Point, Cape Town to break their fast and to look out for the new moon on 24 June 2017. - Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp
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