How Ellerines and African Bank misled a customer into debt and other stories

Featured stories

Montagu family on brink of losing home

Darkness falls on the Koo valley. Andries Joostenberg, 63, and his son hang up their axes, stack the last logs of cut wood and trudge indoors. The temperature drops. In the farm cottage's kitchen a family huddles in semi-darkness around a wood stove. The electricity has been cut, so too the water: final instalments in a siege designed to drive Andries off the land.

Daneel Knoetze

Fleeced! How Ellerines and African Bank misled a customer into debt

\xe2\x80\x9cMaking Life Easier For You\xe2\x80\x9d is Ellerines\xe2\x80\x99 promise to customers. But the high-profile furniture outlet has made life anything but easy for Patricia Qwase.

Michelle Korte

The mountain is not for gays

For many South Africans, the practice of traditional circumcision is vital for males if they wish their community to regard them as men and no longer boys. For most it is a significant experience, but for some it can be unbearable.

Pharie Sefali

Astonishing cost of Angy Peter trial sheds light on price of justice

After five months of sitting trial, Angy Peter and her husband Isaac Mbadu have yet to receive a verdict. In the process, they\xe2\x80\x99ve racked up over R1.6 million in lawyer fees, according to the Social Justice Coalition (SJC).

Lara Sokoloff

Makhaza's shoddily built houses

Zone 14 residents in Makhaza are worried about the shoddy building of houses managed by the Niall Mellon Township Trust (NMTT). This has prompted the provincial Human Settlements Department to investigate after receiving numerous complaints.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

The Inequality Debate: Isaacs vs Schussler

Lessons from the platinum strike: the poison of inequality

The timing, duration and intensity of the long strike on the platinum belt were fuelled by a familiar South African problem: persistent and very high inequality.

Gilad Isaacs

Do wage increases lead to greater inequality?

Recent articles in GroundUp by Gilad Isaacs on the conclusions to be drawn from the long platinum strike have prompted a vigorous debate about the nature of inequality in South Africa. Here economist Mike Schussler argues that demands for higher wages will lead to more inequality, not less.

Mike Schussler

Why Mike Schussler is wrong about inequality

Popular economist Mike Schussler\xe2\x80\x99s recently published article distorts the available statistical evidence to buttress a bizarre argument.

Gilad Isaacs

Reports

Dismissed security guards strike over unpaid salaries

More than 60 former Iriss Security Solutions\xe2\x80\x99 workers who say they haven\xe2\x80\x99t been paid in full for the past two months protested outside the company\xe2\x80\x99s offices in Mandalay yesterday.

Barbara Maregele

Minister promises to expand child support grant, but no tangible progress yet

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini announced plans in June to expand child support grant eligibility from age 18 to 23.

Michelle Korte

Magistrate says charges stand against sanitation activists

The trial of 21 Social Justice Coalition (SJC) members continued in the Cape Town Magistrates' Court today. The group are charged with unlawfully attending and convening a protest in September last year.

Daneel Knoetze

Cape Town's protest permit system not supported by law, says City employee

The City of Cape Town's policy that requires groups, marchers and protesters to apply for a gathering permit is not supported by law. This was a concession made by one of the City's own officials, Noel da Silva, who is employed to consider such applications and to grant permits.

Daneel Knoetze

SANRAL says City of Cape Town was involved in the eviction of displaced Nomzamo residents

Nomzamo informal settlement residents would have been relocated to new land years ago had the City of Cape Town not withdrawn from negotiations in 2011, attorneys for the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) told the Lwandle Inquiry yesterday.

Barbara Maregele

Murdered doctor: TAC marches through Khayelitsha

Escorted by the metro police and the South African Police Service (SAPS), carrying a huge banner written \xe2\x80\x9cCriminals are being nursed by the system, justice must prevail\xe2\x80\x9d, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) led a march through Khayelitsha to demand safe communities.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Khayelitsha\xe2\x80\x99s stinkiest home finally gets cleaned up

A house in Khayelitsha stank so badly, even the neighbours complained about it. Thankfully, the City of Cape Town has unblocked the sewage drain of Mluleki Gantso\xe2\x80\x99s house.

Johnnie Isaac

Premier called \xe2\x80\x9cracist girl\xe2\x80\x9d as tensions flare at Lwandle inquiry

Tensions flared during the second half of the Lwandle inquiry yesterday after Ses\xe2\x80\x99khona leader Loyiso Nkohla referred to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille as a \xe2\x80\x9cracist girl\xe2\x80\x9d. The remark prompted an infuriated DA staffer, Jamie Turkington, to interject during Nkohla\xe2\x80\x99s presentation.

Barbara Maregele

Ward councilor sheds light on the history of evicted Nomazo residents

A Nomzamo ward councillor told the ministerial inquiry into the Lwandle evictions how he cautioned a group of backyarders, who were tired of \xe2\x80\x9cunfulfilled promises\xe2\x80\x9d by the City of Cape Town, against settling on land owned by the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL).

Barbara Maregele

Shacks in Masiphumelele wetland area drenched

The Masiphumele informal settlement in Fish Hoek was flooded on Thursday by heavy rains.

Zintle Swana

City in the hot seat over toilet audit

Over a quarter of the flush toilets inspected during the Social Justice Coalition\xe2\x80\x99s (SJC) social audit did not work.

Barbara Maregele

Opinion

The Difficulty with De Kock

On 10 July 2014 the Minister of Justice, Michael Masutha, conveyed his decision to refuse Eugene de Kock\xe2\x80\x99s application for parole to the public. His decision, although unsurprising, is unusual for having gone against the respective recommendations of the National Council for Correctional Services and the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board, who, in November 2013, recommended that de Dock be released on parole.

Clare Ballard

No one should have to bump into De Kock in the supermarket

A growing number of people, including some surprising names, such as Max du Preez, and others more predictable, such as FW de Klerk, seem to believe that Eugene De Kock, head of the Vlakplaas torture camp and death squad, should be released from prison. Here is why I disagree.

Brent Meersman

Does anybody remember AIDS?

This week thousands of activists, scientists and government officials will troop to Melbourne, Australia, to participate in the 20th International AIDS Conference.

Mark Heywood

A suggestion for how unions can help alleviate household debt

Official statistics note that South African household borrowings have declined slightly. However, we remain a nation wallowing in debt. And this applies from the government down to the humblest of families.

Terry Bell

Arts

Cape Town World Music Festival a great success

This past weekend (18-19 July) saw the first ever Cape Town World Music Festival take place at the City Hall. The successful event brought artists such as Thandiswa Mazwai, The Brother Moves On, Beatenberg and more, all on to one stage.

Zethu Gqola