City of Cape Town to acquire drones and other stories

Featured Stories

City of Cape Town plan to acquire drones

Shortly after referring to its CCTV system as “Big Brother” and expressing support for public video surveillance, the City of Cape Town has revealed that it is in the \xe2\x80\x9cplanning phase\xe2\x80\x9d of a camera drone project.

Daneel Knoetze

What is UCT's new admissions policy?

The University of Cape Town is changing its admissions policy to take into account disadvantage as well as race. The new policy is complex. We have tried here to explain it accurately and simply.

Katy Scott and GroundUp staff

Reports

Protest against murder of sex workers

In the past two months, five sex workers have been murdered in Cape Town. Three of the victims were under 26. Advocacy organisations partly blame the continued criminalization of sex work.

Barbara Maregele

Six-year-old and siblings survive by begging for food

A kid known as Didi, who is six, walks the Nyanga streets asking people for bread and for money to buy sweets and chips. Didi says that sometimes he sleeps without eating; when he wakes up, he and his siblings have to go and look for food.

Pharie Sefali

Salt River “improvement” deprives car guards of income

Car guards outside the Old Biscuit Mill have been left without an income after the newly operational Salt River Business Improvement District (SRBID) told them to leave.

Daneel Knoetze

Disabled and living in a shack

Regina Mahlombe is 64. She has become bed-ridden as a result of being stabbed by muggers in Gugulethu when she was 21. She yearns to leave her shack for a proper home.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

RR Section\xe2\x80\x99s overflowing toilets still unfixed

An unbearable smell lingers in the air of RR Section to the point where you can taste it. This is the daily struggle for Khayelitsha residents who live next to overflowing drains and toilets that still remain unfixed by the City of Cape Town.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

SA activists and writers join the worldwide reading in support of Edward Snowden

The Berlin Literary Festival's (BLF) \xe2\x80\x9cLiberty and Recognition for Edward Snowden\xe2\x80\x9d worldwide reading was supported by two events in South Africa at the AVA Gallery and Kalk Bay Bookshop (under the auspices of SA PEN) on Monday.

Daneel Knoetze

18 years documentation struggle with Home Affairs

After 18 years of legal struggles, Mathijs van Hillegondsberg will meet the Department of Home Affairs in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday. Van Hillegondsberg claims that he and his family have been victims of maladministration and abuse of power.

Tariro Washinyira

Opinion

From Steve Biko to Thuli Madonsela

This week the Public Protector was called a CIA agent. The ruling party\xe2\x80\x99s tactic of labeling its critics foreign agents is counterproductive, has a bloody history and is damaging the country, writes Ayanda Kota.

Ayanda Kota

Constitutional misunderstandings

Our justly praised Constitution and the institutions it created have taken something of a verbal battering over the past week and more \xe2\x80\x94 and often for the wrong reasons. In the process, the office of the public protector has become something of a surrogate battleground for the opposing factions in Cosatu.

Terry Bell

Brief

City goes to court to stop Ses\xe2\x80\x99Khona protests

Ses\xe2\x80\x99khona People\xe2\x80\x99s Rights Movement supporters came in their numbers to protest outside the Western Cape High Court about an interdict the City of Cape Town seeks to stop them protesting.

Johnnie Isaac

Activist Beat

Week in activism

This week in activism we cover the symposium on torture hosted by the Wits Justice Project, the march by Equal Education for better sanitation for schools in Gauteng, and the \xe2\x80\x98What if Women\xe2\x80\x99 challenge by WHEAT.

Thembela Ntongana

Arts

Young dancer gets scholarship but has no funds to stay in US

Local dancer Aviwe November will soon be heading to the United States where he has been awarded a two-year scholarship with the Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco.

Barbara Maregele

The Greatmore Long Walk Project empowers young artists

Established in 1998, and located in Woodstock, Greatmore Studios is a dynamic environment in which South African artists and international visitors co-exist. The studios have played an essential role in the career development of many highly successful South African artists.

Tariro Washinyira

Mannenberg duo teach more than music

In a classroom at Phoenix Secondary School in Mannenberg, GroundUp spoke to Zakie Johnson and Aziza Davids. They are skilled participants working for the Community Work Programme, a poverty relief government initiative that provides a job safety net for the unemployed. The average daily rate is R63,18.

Katy Scott

Things look up for township DJs

More DJs are being recruited from our local townships to showcase their talents on international stages, thanks to organisations such as Bridges for Music and Redbull. However, it seems as though Cape Town itself is not so accommodating.

Zethu Gqola

Sport

Bafana Bafana - start of a winning streak?

On Wednesday, Bafana Bafana\xe2\x80\x99s new intake of youngsters played their second game, this time against African champions Nigeria at Cape Town stadium, leaving over 30,000 supporters with huge smiles. The game ended in a goalless draw, but with Bafana on second spot with six points in Group A of the African Nations Cup Qualifiers.

Siyabonga Kalipa