No benefit for taxi commuters as petrol price plunges, and other stories

15 January 2015 | News

Reports

Returning Zimbabweans battle with bureaucracy

Zimbabweans who travelled to Zimbabwe before their Special Dispensation Permits were issued have complained of problems on their return to South Africa after the holidays.

Tariro Washinyira

Plasma TV rumour surfaces again

New rumours of a \xe2\x80\x9cplasma gang\xe2\x80\x9d stealing TV\xe2\x80\x99s in order to retrieve a powder have surfaced in Cape Town, but police and scientists are unconvinced.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Hope Street carpenter evicted, again

Hope Street\xe2\x80\x99s pavement carpenter Mark Philander again had his material confiscated by officers from the City of Cape Town Law Enforcement this morning. Now, a local councillor has committed to linking Philander to the City\xe2\x80\x99s informal traders unit in an attempt to find a public space for him to work legally and unhindered.

Daneel Knoetze

Meet the first Mitchell's Plain school with a 100% matric pass rate

It has taken almost 50 years for a school in Mitchell's Plain to achieve a 100% matric pass rate. Not since the community\xe2\x80\x99s inception in the 1970s has a school in the area managed to ensure that each of its pupils not only made the grade but also excelled at maths and science.

A\xe2\x80\x99Eysha Kassiem

Striking farm workers reinstated

The eleven workers who were dismissed from Steytler Boerdery outside Robertson for taking part in strikes in January 2013 have reached a settlement with their employer and have been reinstated.

Daneel Knoetze

Hangberg shackdweller appeals her conviction

The Wynberg Magistrate\xe2\x80\x99s Court \xe2\x80\x9cunconstitutionally\xe2\x80\x9d ordered Hangberg resident Janina Samuels to choose between homelessness and imprisonment, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has argued in appealing her 2013 conviction for contempt of court.

Daneel Knoetze

No benefit for taxi commuters as petrol price plunges

The petrol price drops today by R1.27 a litre and the diesel price by R1.05 - but this will not mean lower fares for Cape Town\xe2\x80\x99s taxi and bus passengers.

Zintle Tia Swana

Mfuleni youth question Ramaphosa

Lack of jobs for black graduates was among concerns raised by young people in a meeting with deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa in Mfuleni yesterday.

Johnnie Isaac

SJC to move after latest burglary

Social Justice Coalition (SJC) members returned to work today after the holidays to find their offices trashed.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Snatched baby back at home

When 38-year old Khayelitsha mother Nomveliso Semsem was told that her 12 day old baby was missing from Groote Schuur hospital's maternity ward, she didn't believe the nurses until the police arrived at her bedside.

GroundUp Staff

Need that bullet removed from your arm? Then show us your papers

There\xe2\x80\x99s a bullet lodged in Ali Hussein\xe2\x80\x99s body, somewhere between his right shoulder and neck. It has been there for nearly two months.

Joyce Xi

Phumeza's chance to hear again

A fundraising campaign has sprung up to pay for cochlear implants that would help former drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patient and current activist Phumeza Tisile regain her hearing.

Daneel Knoetze

Township residents complain about festive season noise

Some townships residents are fed up with the noise from parties and street bashes that escalate at this time of the year.

Pharie Sefali

What immigrants do in the holidays when it's too expensive to travel home

Taurai Mari is from Zimbabwe, but he will be spending the December holidays in Cape Town. He has saved money to visit the city\xe2\x80\x99s tourist destinations.

Tariro Washinyira

Opinion

Charlie Hebdo: Let's not fall into the politically correct trap

Charlie Hebdo journalist Laurent Leger is no stranger to South African newspaper readers. Over the last ten years or so, as a freelancer, Laurent has written several reports for South African newspapers on the French connection in the arms deal, and also on failed attempts to find the killers of ANC Paris representative Dulcie September.

Alide Dasnois

Cartoons and the Prophet Muhammad

The question of whether Prophet Muhammad can be depicted in Islam is something that perhaps most Muslims have failed to explain. With every cartoon or drawing, most people wonder why Muslims are in such an uproar \xe2\x80\x93 and admittedly, in some cases in a manner that is frankly unbefitting of the Prophet himself.

A\xe2\x80\x99Eysha Kassiem

Let\xe2\x80\x99s not focus only on the matric results

A focus on the matric results obscures problems lower down in the education system, writes Wim Louw.

Wim Louw

ANC: from a heroic tradition to sleaze and crime

The ANC is one of the few political organisations in the world that has existed for over 100 years. It remains powerful electorally and although it received less votes than before in last year's national general election, it could well still be returned as the ruling party for the foreseeable future.

Raymond Suttner

We need a definition of a living wage

Instead of focusing on percentage increases, wage negotiations should be based on a clear definition of a living wage, write Trenton Elsley and George Mthethwa.

Trenton Elsley and George Mthethwa

Workers lose out as construction sector expands

The construction sector has grown enormously in the last 20 years, but the old system of cheap labour still prevails, writes Eddie Cottle.

Eddie Cottle

The silver lining to those dark clouds of global turmoil

As another year draws to a close, the advice usually attributed to the Italian revolutionary, Antonio Gramsci constantly comes to mind: exercise pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the will. I must admit that it has become a great deal easier over recent months to exercise pessimism of the intellect \xe2\x80\x94 and increasingly difficult to exercise optimism of the will to do something about changing things, domestically or globally.

Terry Bell

Brief

South Africa gets its first chess grandmaster

Kenny Solomon from Mitchell's Plain has become the first South African to attain the coveted chess title of grandmaster.

GroundUp Staff

Text of EFF interdict

On 23 December Judge Dennis Davis delivered an oral judgment in the case between the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the speaker of the National Assembly. Here is the text of that judgment.

GroundUp Staff

Editorial

“Silence must not be allowed to win”

Today GroundUp publishes this image in solidarity with journalists all over the world following the attack in Paris on \xe2\x80\x8bthe staff of \xe2\x80\x8bCharlie Hebdo, in which ten journalists and two police officers were killed.

GroundUp Staff

Photo story

From hiking to praying: Deer Park's diversity in photos

Deer Park, which slopes its way from Table Mountain into the City Bowl, provides a fascinating view of Cape Town's diverse cultures. Besides being popular for picnics, cycling and hiking, it is also a source of water for some and where others perform religious activities.

Photos by Masixole Feni. Text by Kevin Elliott.

Obituary

Farewell to a lovable revolutionary

Sadie Forman (1929-2014) one of the most unconventional, interesting and lovable fighters in the South African anti-apartheid movement, died on the morning of 11 December, aged 85. She spent the last years of her life with her daughter, Sara, in Lewes, in the East Sussex county of England. Her funeral will be held on 23 December.

Terry Bell