Are we on a slippery slope to authoritarianism? It’s a valid question to ask since both the Cosatu and the national constitutions have been undermined. And they were both, in their own way, flag bearers of the democratic promise of the new South Africa.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 22 June 2015
A high-profile court showdown is looming between a medical scheme and the patient activist group, Treatment Action Campaign, as well as about a dozen other organisations. Its outcome will have significant repercussions for what schemes offer their members.
Shadi Garman and GroundUp Staff
News | 19 June 2015
Undefeated men's champion, Xolile Damba from Langa, is expected to once again defend his title at the third annual Battle of the Titans bodybuilding competition on Saturday.
Barbara Maregele
News | 19 June 2015
Residents in Wynberg and Plumstead were still up in arms on Wednesday over the new planned MyCiti bus route. They claim it has not involved true public participation. If implemented as currently proposed, many families will have to be evicted and the social character of Wynberg will be changed.
Ashleigh Furlong
News | 19 June 2015
On Friday, R2K Gauteng is planning a protest at the gates of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD). We did this after many years of frustration -- from R2K activists and other civic structures in Gauteng -- at how JMPD officers have undermined the right to protest.
Bongani Xezwi
Opinion | 18 June 2015
Since the age of 16, Peter Webb from Mfuleni has had an obsession with tattoos after seeing many movie stars with bodies splashed with ink designs. Finally with his first salary, he managed to buy a tattoo machine and started his own business in the township.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 18 June 2015
The Forum of Immigration Practitioners of South Africa (FIPSA) last week said many visa applications are being rejected by Home Affairs due to the incorrect application of the law, leaving a stream of applicants unable to work, study and pay their bills.
Bernard Chiguvare and Ashleigh Furlong
News | 18 June 2015
At 4am on Wednesday, Cape Town police used teargas and rubber bullets to prevent a group of about 50 residents from Barcelona informal settlement dumping buckets full of human waste onto the N2 highway. Residents said their buckets have not been collected or cleaned for the past four months.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 18 June 2015
A new hockey astro facility funded with a R3 million grant from the Western Cape Provincial Sport Confederation to the Swartland Municipality has raised to questions in the community about how resources are allocated.
Ashleigh Furlong
News | 17 June 2015
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
Please protect local and foreign visitors to our natural treasures. We cannot afford to lose touris… Read more
It sounds as if there is a massive cover-up on the go here. Only one question from me: who was the … Read more
Projects of this nature are complex and it is easier to write horror stories about them than to exp… Read more
I work for an NGO in the HIV unit. It would be impossible for the DSD to reach their targets. They … Read more
The city should not entertain the notion of fixing providing water, sanitation and electricity to b… Read more