When a police van hit and killed our child

This is a shortened transcript of a witness testimony given at the Khayelitsha Commission last week.

Transcript from Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry

News | 3 February 2014

The Transformative Farce of Davos

Vague ideas of transformation are all the rage these days. Take the latest bun fight in Davos, for example. The annual gathering of the grandly named World Economic Forum (WEF) that ended last weekend met under the heading: “The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business.”

Terry Bell

Opinion | 31 January 2014

Witness alleges police accepted bribe in murder case

While testifying today at the Khayelitsha Commission, a witness stated she believes the officer investigating the murder of her son accepted a bribe to stop his investigation.

Adam Armstrong

News | 30 January 2014

Philippi school struggles to get help for disabled learners

This article has been withdrawn due to problems with it that we are unable to address. GroundUp apologises.

Pharie Sefali

News | 30 January 2014

Brave women and burnt-out cops

Funeka Soldaat told the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry how she had been raped by a group of young men because she is a lesbian. She testified that she is a survivor of "corrective rape".

Adam Armstrong

News | 29 January 2014

Charlie’s DAngels

News | 29 January 2014

The week in political activism

This week we cover Corruption Watch, the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry and protests over the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

Brent Meersman

News | 29 January 2014

Lawyer to Home Affairs: treatment of asylum seekers is irresponsible, hard-hearted, incompetent

Hundreds of asylum seekers who have been living in Cape Town for more than five years and have renewed their documents more than twelve times are now undocumented. They may lose their work. They no longer have access to health, education, and bank accounts. And they are vulnerable to arrest, detention and deportation.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 29 January 2014

Terry Bell “honoured and humbled” by support

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has condemned the suspension of Terry Bell's Inside Labour column that ran in Business Report for about 18 years.

GroundUp Staff, Terry Bell and COSATU

News | 29 January 2014

Mother and daughter: alive, productive and healthy on antiretrovirals

Nandipha Madolo, from Khayelitsha’s Litha Park, has experienced much in her life, with HIV playing a major part. She watched her brother die from meningitis due to HIV. Her HIV-positive husband abused her. Her youngest daughter contracted HIV, and Madolo found out that she too was HIV-positive. But today Madolo has a healthy daughter, a steady job, and she is a public speaker.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 29 January 2014

Why sugar does NOT kill more South Africans than HIV/AIDS

In a recent column, the editor of South Africa's Business Day newspaper, Peter Bruce, claimed that sugar kills more South Africans than HIV/AIDS has ever done. He was wrong.

Nathan Geffen (GroundUp Editor) via Africa Check

News | 29 January 2014

Pharma plot has consequences for the blind

If a secret plot by foreign pharmaceutical companies and their local subsidiaries to delay South Africa's IP policy process until after the elections succeeds, non-pharmaceutical sectors will also be affected.

Marcus Low

Opinion | 29 January 2014

Principals describe hardships of running schools in Khayelitsha

Principals of two Khayelitsha schools gave testimony at the Khayelitsha Commission yesterday. They explained how crime affected their institutions.

Adam Armstrong

News | 29 January 2014

“Police do not care” - chilling testimony at Khayelitsha Commission

Malwande Msongelwa found her brother dead at a bus-stop near her house. He had been stabbed. She called the emergency number, 10111. There was no response.

Adam Armstrong

News | 28 January 2014

Over 40 degrees but not a heat wave in Upington

Temperatures in Upington in the Northern Cape have risen to over 40 degrees. But it’s still not an official heatwave for this scorching hot part of the country.

Selby Nomnganga

Brief | 28 January 2014

Young Blood: an extract from Sifiso Mzobe’s novel

South Africa had been waiting for a novel like Young Blood when it won the coveted Sunday Times Fiction Prize in 2011. Community newspaper journalist Sifiso Mzobe set his debut novel in his hometown of Umlazi, Durban. It is a racy, fast-paced, stark narrative told from the side of the railway tracks where crime is part and parcel of everyday township life.

Sifiso Mzobe

News | 28 January 2014