GroundUp 6 - 12 Feb is published

Featured Story

Metrorail or Metrofail?

Metrorail is one of the three divisions of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), the state-owned enterprise which is responsible for most passenger rail services in South Africa. It is also one of the most troublesome forms of public transport.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News

The poorest of the poor: The Karretjie Mense of the Great Karoo

In and around Colesberg, a small historical town on the N1 mid-way between Cape Town and Johannesburg, I met a group of impoverished sheep shearers living in abject poverty, surviving in tiny tin shacks on the verges of public roads. Only recently, in the last 15 years, have they become a settled, sedentary people.

Timothy Gabb

How I became a polygamist - Video

Mr Sithole is a very traditional man who has two wives and 19 children. Growing up he realised that his father was a polygamist, he looked at his fathers life and liked it, so when it was time for him to take a wife, he decided to have more than one.

Sthembiso Dube and Fanelesibonge Mthimkhulu

Boystown residents protest over housing corruption allegations

Residents burned tyres at Boystown near Crossroads in Nyanga. They complained that houses were being built without knowledge of who is going to receive them.

Mihle Pike

Gugs Youth perform hip hop at the Baxter theatre

Hip Hop Kaslam (which means “my location”) is the name given to the first hip hop event organised in 2010. The event is returning to the Baxter Theatre on 2 March 2013.

Mary-Jane Matsolo

Nomlinganiselo Primary School closed off by angry parents - principal locked in

Parents protested outside Nomlinganiselo Primary school in New Crossroads, Nyanga. They also prevented kids from entering the school building on 30 and 31 January.

Mihle Pike

Renting out recycled bicycles

Eight years ago Bongani Ndlazi started collecting old bicycles and making them new again. He has turned his talent into a business that puts food on the table.

Nokubonga Yawa

Libertas Flats in Parow are a human pig sty

On Thursday morning I went to see Libertas Flats in Klosser Street, Parow. This block is a human pig sty. It is filthy and stinks. There are leaking ceilings and walls that seem to have been painted a century ago. Many flats are without water and electricity.

Tariro Washinyira

Will Lentegeur's hospice be closed?

St Lukes Hospice in Lentegeur Hospital in Mitchells Plain has received notice that it will be closed. The hospice is a separate building on the hospital grounds. The provincial health department intends to replace the hospice's services in a ward in the hospital itself.

Mary-Jane Matsolo

Memorial for police officer shot dead in front of his house

A memorial service was held at Salvation Church in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, for Constable Ngangezwe Calvin Mkhize, who was shot at D-section, Khayelitsha, on Saturday 26 January. The shooting happened at 1am in the morning.

Mihle Pike

Opinion

Unions: getting back to first principles

Yesterday, exactly 40 years ago, the modern trade union movement arrived on the South African scene. Its birth was heralded by a wave of strikes in Durban that had gestated over 22 days from the time 2,000 workers at Coronation Brick and Tile downed tools.

Terry Bell

Sport

PE boy makes it on the American soccer scene

Twenty-year-old Kirk de Boer grew up in PE and is now playing football in Atlanta, USA. GroundUp spoke to him about his soccer career and how he started playing for Southern Poly.

Margo Fortune