News

It takes a worker 100 years to earn what a director earns in one year

In 1993, it would have taken the average labourer 40 years to earn what the average executive director of a top company in South Africa earned in a year.

Alide Dasnois

News | 12 November 2014

Who is behind Confessions of a Bisexual Chick?

A year ago, Ntombikayise Matyumza of Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape started a Facebook page aimed at gay and lesbian youth. Today she has more than 14,000 followers across the country.

Pharie Sefali

News | 12 November 2014

Disabled Khayelitsha resident has to use neighbours’ toilet

Disabled Site C resident Vincent Gaelejwe, 43, lives in a one-roomed shack and has nowhere to keep the portable toilet supplied by the City of Cape Town. Instead, he limps to his neighbour’s house every day to use the portable toilet there.

Zintle Swana

News | 11 November 2014

Poor sanitation and lousy maps contribute to Khayelitsha’s crime problems

Following the Khayelitsha Inquiry into Policing, a series of meetings are being organised between SAPS and the Khayelitsha community. One took place at the University of Cape Town's middle campus on the weekend.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 11 November 2014

Call for national minimum wage of R5,000 a month

“We would like the government to legislate a national minimum wage of R4,500 so that the private sector cannot get away with murder,” Langa resident Fezile Olifant told a parliamentary hearing on the national minimum wage in Gugulethu at the weekend.

Katy Scott

News | 11 November 2014

Ndisebenzisa ikawusi njengephedi, utsho umfundi wakwaLanga

UAkhona ufunda kwibanga lesibhozo. Njengabo bonke abalingane bakhe baseklasini abaninzi, usoloko ephoswa kukuya esikolweni xa esexesheni ngenxa yokuba usapho lwakhe alukwazi ukumthengela iiphedi. Xa kufuneka abhale uvavanyo, usebenzisa ikawusi, utsho.

Pharie Sefali

News | 11 November 2014

Farm worker activists acquitted

Four activists and farm workers, arrested two years ago while marching in the Koo valley outside Montagu, have been acquitted.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 10 November 2014

Zimbabweans afraid to go home for Christmas

Zimbabweans whose permits expire on 31 December and whose applications for new permits have not yet been processed face a difficult decision about whether to return home for Christmas - and risk trouble at the border on their return to South Africa.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 10 November 2014

SAPS to investigate torture in Zimbabwe

South Africa’s highest court has ordered the police to investigate allegations of torture by Zimbabwe police carried out in Zimbabwe on Zimbabwean nationals.

Carmel Rickard

News | 7 November 2014

After hundreds of jobs lost, Free State promises to fix impassable road

Four years after a R100-million provincial government contract crashed in the Free State – driving a large civil engineering company into bankruptcy and rendering a major road impassable – the province has finally taken action to repair the disaster.

Barbara Maregele (with amaBhungane)

News | 7 November 2014

Marikana: World Bank loan undermines Lonmin’s arguments, says academic

During the hearings of the Marikana Commission, Lonmin executives said the company had not been able to afford to keep its 2006 promise to build 5,500 new houses for workers. Yet a year later, in 2007, the International Finance Corporation had made finance of US$150 million available to Lonmin - part of it for a "large-scale community development programme".

Alide Dasnois

News | 7 November 2014

ArcelorMittal and environmental groups battle it out in court

Can civil society organisations compel private companies to provide documents about their impact on the environment? This is the central question in a court battle that reached the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein yesterday.

GroundUp staff

News | 7 November 2014

Sheriff demolishes Walmer Estate shacks, then cancels eviction

After demolishing three structures, the sheriff of the court aborted the eviction of fourteen shack dwellers in Walmer Estate late on Thursday afternoon. As the sun was setting, the households who had lost their homes were hastily erecting temporary shelter.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 6 November 2014

Ses’khona and ANC trade accusations

Ses’khona Peoples Rights Movement has given the Western Cape regional office of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa seven working days to respond to its memorandum of demands.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 6 November 2014

Tokolosies graffitti bomb Brundyn+ gallery

On Thursday, staff at the Brundyn+ gallery in Buitengracht found that their building had been graffiti bombed by one of the art collectives, tokolos-stencils, invited to exhibit work at the gallery this month.

GroundUp Staff

News | 6 November 2014

Township based bands are music to the ears of youth

Zethu Gqola looks at four bands from the townships that have gone overseas, released high-selling albums and have come back to inspire their communities, mentoring the youth and getting children back in school.

Zethu Gqola

News | 6 November 2014