With summer heat and seasonal gale force southeaster winds, it is a time of high risk for shack fires. There were 123 fires in the past month in informal settlements in the Western Cape. This December, load shedding may well be adding to that risk. GroundUp visited a family in the aftermath of a recent shack fire to see how they are coping.
Pharie Sefali
News | 5 December 2014
A Robertson farm worker has laid a charge of assault against his employer after allegedly being “slapped and choked” on Wednesday morning. The attack, he said, was punishment for inviting a farm workers’ union leader onto the property. A case of assault is being investigated by the police.
Kimon de Greef
News | 4 December 2014
The journey to school is long and tough for many pupils. Some have to travel for hours on foot to get to school. The Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) recently collected affidavits in rural KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) which were “truly incredible and devastating”.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 4 December 2014
It has taken Lonmin Plc a decade to cut the Bapo ba Mogale community a 3.3% slice of the company that mines platinum on its land. In the same period, Lonmin has served up an ownership share more than five times bigger to Shanduka Resources – a black empowerment
company founded by ANC stalwart Cyril Ramaphosa – and sauced it with a series of loans and dispensations to keep it fresh.
Brendan Boyle
News | 4 December 2014
Police have confirmed that live ammunition was used yesterday against people looting rice from a broken-down truck near Mbizana in the Eastern Cape. Two people were killed.
Pharie Sefali and Daneel Knoetze
News | 3 December 2014
Too many employers of domestic workers refuse to comply with the Unemployment Insurance Fund, leaving their employees seriously short changed.
Zintle Swana
News | 3 December 2014
The powerful International Finance Corporation has been sharply rapped over the knuckles in an ombudsman’s report on its US $50 million investment in Lonmin.
Alide Dasnois
News | 3 December 2014
Nondumiso Marman used to fear water but now she teaches Khayelitsha children how to swim.
Siyabonga Kalipa
News | 3 December 2014
City of Cape Town drone tests are underway, with a new model demonstrated to officials and journalists last week. Critics are uninformed, malicious and have watched “too many movies”, officials say.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 3 December 2014
Tirelessly since 2001, Thembisa Maso has been sent pillar to post by the City of Cape Town, the Department of Human Settlements, housing committees and ward councilors, only to be disappointed. Finally, she will be able to move into her home by the end of this week.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 3 December 2014
Gugulethu was at a standstill on the weekend when dancers and artists showed their talents at the Community Creative District launch. Houses were turned into art galleries, streets into stages, putting everyone in a jovial mood to see art in their area.
Siyabonga Kalipa
News | 2 December 2014
Shackdwellers from the original settlement in Marikana, Philippi, are celebrating a court interdict which will protect them from being arbitrarily evicted “through the back door”. Interdicts secured by landowners and municipalities are supposed to prohibit further settlement. Yet they are often so vague that they allow for people who have already settled to be removed.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 1 December 2014
The police, civil society and Khayelitsha community activists are beginning to work together to give effect to the commission of inquiry into policing's recommendations. Here's an update on progress so far, and plans for next year.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 28 November 2014
Angy Peter, her husband Isaac Mbadu, Azola Dayimani and Christopher Dina will not get prison sentences. They have also been given bail. Dayimani and Dina were released today. Peter and Mbadu are expected to be released from Pollsmoor tomorrow.
GroundUp Staff
News | 27 November 2014
“No more lip services, we want action. No more boardroom activism, no more!” shouted thousands of activists as they marched to parliament today.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 27 November 2014
A man was injured when police fired rubber bullets at a crowd of about a thousand asylum seekers earlier today at the Home Affairs Temporary Refugee Centre on Cape Town’s foreshore. Witnesses say that a nine-month-old baby was also injured.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 27 November 2014