Saturday 20 June is World Refugee Day. In a keynote address at an event organised by the Scalabrini Centre and the Holocaust Centre in Cape Town, Caroline Skinner, senior researcher at The African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town, shared timely new research about the role of migrants and refugees in the informal economy.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 17 June 2015
Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron delivered the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture at Oxford University on 16 June. While much longer than pieces we normally carry, the speech is relevant to vital current issues and we present it here in full.
Edwin Cameron
Analysis | 17 June 2015
Informal traders who eke out a living at Strand Pavilion allege that the City will marginalise them as the facility is upgraded. The City says there will be space for the traders, though slightly reduced. The upgrade has been in the pipeline since 2013.
Bernard Chiguvare
News | 17 June 2015
Luxolo “Nana” Ntsantsa was left paralysed from the waist down after a gunman killed his mother and left him for dead in their small shack in Site C, Khayelitsha nearly a year ago.
Barbara Maregele
Feature | 15 June 2015
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The court’s prosecutor alleges that al-Bashir has "criminal responsibility for the crime of genocide … killing members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups … causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of those groups, and deliberately inflicting on those groups conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in part”.
GroundUp Staff
Analysis | 15 June 2015
Today, the Pretoria High Court dismissed the urgent application by Advocate Dali Mpofu on behalf of Mzoxolo Magidwana, who was shot by police during the Marikana massacre, and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), for the Marikana Commission’s findings to be released immediately. The President has given a self-imposed deadline of 30 June for releasing the report.
Fairouz Nagia-Luddy
Opinion | 15 June 2015
There is just the faintest breeze of renewal and democracy wafting through the bureaucratic corridors of Cosatu and disturbing the cobwebs of dogma that have tangled up due process in the country’s largest labour federation. It comes in the form of the election of David Sipunzi as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Terry Bell
News | 15 June 2015
Lwandle’s residents intend to protest on the N2 because they say they are being neglected by SANRAL, the City of Cape Town and the Housing Development Agency (HDA).
Pharie Sefali
News | 12 June 2015
De Waal Drive tenants were assured on Thursday evening by Western Cape MEC for Human Settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela that they will not be evicted unless they are not paying their rent. Madikizela reiterated this point at a press conference this morning.
Ashleigh Furlong
News | 12 June 2015
What was supposed to be an upliftment project for the Salt River community has turned into a nightmare for market organiser Kim van Lingen. The permit for her market was withdrawn days before the second one was to take place.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 12 June 2015
A trial of a Khayelitsha pastor accused of rape was postponed in the Khayelitsha Regional court on Thursday. Pastor Themba Dumisani Mathibela, also known as TD, is facing seven counts of rape.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
Brief | 11 June 2015
Generous GroundUp readers have made sure the Sibhozo brothers of Site C Taiwan informal settlement in Khayelitsha have enough to eat every day.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 11 June 2015
Going to bed on an empty stomach is not something new for Noxolo Mafilika of Site C Taiwan Informal Settlement. The 37-year-old mother of two has been sharing the little she has with the Sibhozo boys who lost their grandmother early this year. GroundUp published their story on 23 April.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 11 June 2015
Enap ‘Pitshou’ Ngwene, 32, is an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since he arrived in South Africa in 2007, he has nothing tangible to show. He blames this on his rejection for asylum in 2011, which has now been on appeal for four years.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 11 June 2015
The Wetlands informal settlement of Masiphumelele is home to over 20,000 people. It is a jumble of corrugated iron shacks and electrical wires. The smell of sewage and rubbish fills the air. Among the many problems its residents face are a lack of toilets and taps for water.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 11 June 2015
Human rights lawyers have been engaged for ten years in a bid to secure massive damages for former gold miners who suffer from silicosis and TB. As the case heads for the courts, the mining industry is scrambling to offer its own and much less comprehensive solution.
Pete Lewis
Analysis | 11 June 2015
This is truly unfair. For three months straight, we have not received our grants, yet we submitted … Read more
I am originally from Mozambique but my parents came to South Africa with me when I was three years … Read more
All but one of the links on the AMR section of the Department of Health's Knowledge Hub are dead: … Read more
It is a disgrace that millions have been stolen from SASSA yet the culprits go unpunished. Law-abid… Read more