Lwandle’s forgotten evictees, and other stories

Featured stories

Is this the dirtiest job in Cape Town?

It\xe2\x80\x99s midday and in 29 degree heat Sannicare contract workers Prudence Brink, Carmelita Johnson and Francious Beukes are having lunch, sitting on empty portable toilets in front of the depot at Airport Industria where thousands of toilets are cleaned daily.

Text by Zintle Swana. Photos by Masixole Feni.

\xe2\x80\x9cEnough is enough!\xe2\x80\x9d - Manenberg residents take to the streets

Instead of the familiar echo of bullets, the sound of dozens of Manenberg residents chanting \xe2\x80\x9cEnough is enough\xe2\x80\x9d could be heard last night through the streets notorious for the recent spate of gang violence in the area.

Barbara Maregele

Lwandle's forgotten evictees

Last year, the eviction of hundreds of shack dwellers from Lwandle, Strand on the eve of a winter storm sparked a national outcry. Seven months later, construction of alternative accommodation has ceased, and yet dozens of evictees remain homeless - holed up in a temporary relief shelter at a nearby community hall. They have been all but forgotten.

Daneel Knoetze

Reports

Mfuleni sports complex trashed: City blamed for withdrawing security

Mfuleni\xe2\x80\x99s sports complex was vandalised and looted over the festive season. A community leader who is lobbying for the trashed buildings to be renovated has blamed the City of Cape Town for cancelling a contract with a security company to protect the grounds.

Daneel Knoetze

NSRI\xe2\x80\x99s water safety education a \xe2\x80\x9cdrop in the ocean\xe2\x80\x9d

The WaterWise Academy has taught water safety skills to over half a million children around the country. These skills are easy to learn and provide an effective way to reduce the number of drownings in South Africa, says the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).

Kevin Elliott

City's janitorial programme to be scrapped in some areas

The City of Cape Town will not be renewing the contracts of janitors employed to clean flush toilets in some informal settlements in the city.

Barbara Maragele

Kraaifontein gets its first spray park

Residents of Kraaifontein can now cool off at a spray park opened by mayor Patricia de Lille on Wednesday.

Michael Nkalane

\xe2\x80\x9cWe\xe2\x80\x99re not going anywhere until we\xe2\x80\x99re heard\xe2\x80\x9d - Mfuleni tent dwellers

A group of about 100 Mfuleni backyarders who raised eyebrows in the community after erecting and moving into a tent in an open space, more than five months ago, say they are not going anywhere until they are heard.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Brief

Organisation provides hope and skills to thousands of kids

At 22 years of age, Brightness Khumalo, has found a job that she describes as hard but clearly finds rewarding.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

\xe2\x80\x9cMy son was too young to have died like this\xe2\x80\x9d

The father of a sixteen-year-old boy who was killed by a mob in Mfuleni yesterday has criticised the police for not being on hand to help prevent the attack or to arrest any of the killers.

Daneel Knoetze

Interview

Role models and perseverance: how Kenny Solomon became South Africa's first grandmaster

In December Kenny Solomon crossed the final hurdle needed to achieve what no other South African has. He won the African Individual Championship to become South Africa\xe2\x80\x99s first chess grandmaster. Along the way he beat Egyptian grandmaster Ahmed Adly.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion

Constitutional rights apply to sex workers too

A year ago some boys in my street came home late at night with a sex worker. They refused to pay her.

Abigail McDougall

Classrooms of the future?

The air is thick with the excitement of the first week of school. Stories of bright-eyed learners whose parents are dropping them off for the start of their school careers, donning their too-big uniforms and carrying backpacks almost the size of the learners themselves, are all over newspapers, radio stations, televisions and social media.

Nikki Stein

What Africa's premier soccer tournament means to Equatorial Guinea

The brutal kleptocracy of Equatorial Guinea hopes to gain a measure of international acceptance by hosting the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) soccer spectacle that kicked off this weekend, writes Terry Bell. The oil and gas wealth generated by this \xe2\x80\x9cKuwait of Africa\xe2\x80\x9d provides the economic wherewithal for the ruling elite to buy favours while the bulk of the population wallows in repressive poverty. Bell was the only foreign journalist to cover the independence of Equatorial Guinea more than 46 years ago.

Terry Bell

Why Cape Town should not name a street after FW De Klerk

Once again, there is a furore about plans to name a major Cape Town street after former apartheid president FW de Klerk. As well there should be, although there is considerable support for the proposal.

Terry Bell

Book extract

Sexual trauma, a talking cat and a mid-life crisis

Nthikeng Mohlele\xe2\x80\x99s latest novel, \xe2\x80\x9cRusty Bell\xe2\x80\x9d will delight readers already won over by his previous two books \xe2\x80\x9cThe Scent of Bliss\xe2\x80\x9d (2008) and \xe2\x80\x9cSmall Things\xe2\x80\x9d (2013). Mohlele is a fine, literary novelist, a rarity on the South African publishing scene, who although receiving praise from significant quarters, should be enjoying much more attention.

Nthikeng Mohlele