Police’s Firearms Registry contract probed by Hawks and other stories

Featured stories

R400 million firearms control system in shambles

Pressure is mounting on the police to sort out problems with a R400 million firearms control system, ten years after the contract to develop it was signed with Pretoria-based company Waymark Infotech.

Daneel Knoetze

Police\xe2\x80\x99s Firearms Registry contract probed by Hawks

After paying R340 million for a Firearms Control System that was not delivered, the SA Police Service has cancelled its contract with IT company Waymark Infotech. The botched contract is subject to a criminal investigation by the Hawks.

Daneel Knoetze

Joe Slovo residents \xe2\x80\x9ctoo young\xe2\x80\x9d for houses

Residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement, Langa, have been left homeless after they started demolishing their shacks under the impression that keys to new housing units would be handed over to them. The MEC for Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikizela, has said that the shack demolitions were premature and that many of the beneficiaries are \xe2\x80\x9ctoo young\xe2\x80\x9d to be prioritised for housing.

Daneel Knoetze

Lwandle residents to SANRAL: where are our possessions?

Lwandle residents who have been rehoused after being evicted from SA National Roads Agency land in June complain that their possessions have been lost or damaged.

Pharie Sefali

Reports

Mfuleni backyarders clash over land

A piece of land in Bardale was the site of clashes at the weekend when two groups of backyard dwellers from Mfuleni confronted each other.

Johnnie Isaac

Getting health care to sex workers in Cape Town

Leigh Davids was born a boy, but when she was five, she realised she wanted to be a girl.

Katy Scott and GroundUp Staff

Tackling rape in Khayelitsha

Between two and three rapes are reported every day to a single centre in Khayelitsha. And the numbers will probably rise at the end of the year.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Makhaza residents protest at Matthew Goniwe clinic

Inadequate treatment, disrespectful staff members, and lost patient folders have become common at the Matthew Goniwe Clinic in Makhaza, say residents, who marched in protest on 16 October.

Joyce Xi

Hangberg residents demonstrate outside court

Hangberg residents demonstrated at the Wynberg Magistrate\xe2\x80\x99s Court on Thursday in support of Santonio Jonkers who made his second appearance in court.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Ceres murder trial moved to High Court

The trial of Christo Oncker, 28, accused of the murder of a gay man in Ceres in April, is to be moved to the Western Cape High Court, magistrate Japie Mapomie said in the Ceres magistrate\xe2\x80\x99s court on Thursday.

Pharie Sefali

Opinion

Police: Parliament must ask tough questions

It\xe2\x80\x99s annual report season in Parliament, and the new Portfolio Committee on Police is finding its feet. In the first in a series of articles, ZACKIE ACHMAT has some suggestions for the committee.

Zackie Achmat

Social audits and the right to sanitation

Social audits are a valuable tool in implementing socio-economic rights, which is why the response by the City of Cape Town to the social audit of janitorial services in Khayelitsha is disturbing, writes Sandra Liebenberg.

Sandra Liebenberg

Ebola: Journey to a quarantined village

In her latest article from the frontline of the Ebola epidemic, Kathryn Stinson \xe2\x80\x8blooks for answers in a quarantined village in Sierra Leone.

Kathryn Stinson

Marking \xe2\x80\x9cBlack Wednesday\xe2\x80\x9d: how to ensure media freedom

Sunday October 19 marks the commemoration of \xe2\x80\x98Black Wednesday\xe2\x80\x99, the day in 1977 that the apartheid government banned a range of publications sympathetic to the Black Consciousness Movement, and arrested a group of journalists and editors.

Mark Weinberg

Activist Beat

Week in activism

This week we look at Greenpeace\xe2\x80\x99s call on government to make Eskom comply with pollution laws, a report prepared for Parliament\xe2\x80\x99s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and a call for the Department of Home Affairs to recognise transgender rights.

Thembela Ntongana

Obituary

A tribute to Gerald Kraak

Gerald Kraak (1956-2014), who was responsible for organising funding for many leading civil society organisations, died of cancer on Sunday night. Zackie Achmat pays tribute to his old friend.

Zackie Achmat