Some of SA’s top companies are quietly breaking the law

Some of the top companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are flouting environmental laws and not telling their shareholders, according to a study by the Centre for Environmental Rights.

Alide Dasnois

Feature | 8 September 2015

Cato Manor’s struggle against state repression

Cato Manor has a long history of struggle and repression. Women have often been in the forefront of these struggles. This history is well known in Durban. Many families from KwaMashu have roots in Cato Manor. KwaMashu was created to house some of the people forcibly removed from Cato Manor under the Group Areas Act. They were taken from land in the city where they had some autonomy and moved out of the city to a segregated township under strict control of the apartheid state.

Ndabo Mzimela

Opinion | 8 September 2015

Naked and dead in the dirt

The man was almost naked. He had burn marks on his arms. There was a sock on one of his feet and he lay facedown in the dirt. He was found dead in Mfuleni this morning after what appeared to be an act of mob justice.

Masixole Feni and Ashleigh Furlong

News | 7 September 2015

How South Africans are learning from Somali businesses

Saeed Furaa arrived in South Africa in 1998 after fleeing Somalia where he had worked as a shepherd. Against the backdrop of xenophobic violence in April, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said that foreigners needed to share their business practices with local business owners. Yet this is exactly what Furaa and other Somalis have been doing.

Yumna Mohamed

News | 7 September 2015

Cape Town’s informal recycling squad

Robert Thompson has been collecting material for recycling in Cape Town since 1999. On an average day he makes R100, selling the cardboard and paper he collects to Harrington Buy Back Centre (HBBC) in the city centre.

Bernard Chiguvare

News | 7 September 2015

Loss of her child prompted Khayelitsha woman to launch soup kitchen

The loss of her 11 year old child to TB prompted Vivian Zilo to start a soup kitchen to feed TB patients. Within three months she was feeding 300 people, and the Iliso Care Society has grown from there.

Pharie Sefali

News | 7 September 2015

Is the sale of sexual favours work?

What is work? This question came very much to the fore over the past week after Amnesty International, called for “sex work” to be decriminalised. The international human rights organisation made the call after a two-year investigation into the “sex industry”. It came shortly after two local gender equality and human rights groups also called for law change.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 7 September 2015

Human Rights Commission turns spotlight on business

Human rights violations in the workplace are a growing issue says Karam Singh, Western Cape manager of the SA Human Rights Commission, which is focusing on human rights in business in 2015-16.

Barbara Maregele

News | 7 September 2015

Conditions at Pollsmoor “profoundly disturbing”, says judge

Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron and his law clerks have published a scathing report of Pollsmoor Prison after visiting the remand centre — where awaiting trial prisoners are kept — and the women's centre on 23 April. Some of their findings are consistent with those reported by GroundUp in May.

GroundUp Staff

News | 4 September 2015

Meet the Hanover Park woman who drives a taxi

What’s it like to be a woman taxi driver? It’s OK, says 52 year old Amina Stevens from Hanover Park - though some of her women passengers took a while to feel safe with her.

Siphesihle Matyila

News | 4 September 2015

Langa housing: it’s separate development all over again

The reason for the recent protests by Langa residents is the delay in answers to complaints and demands handed peacefully over to the Mayor’s office on the 26 July 2015.

Vusi Mandindi

Opinion | 4 September 2015

GroundUp opens in Eastern Cape

We are pleased to announce that GroundUp has opened an Eastern Cape office in East London. This is our first office outside Cape Town.

GroundUp Staff

News | 3 September 2015

Barcelona residents angered by piles of rubbish

Rubbish is piling up in front of people’s homes in Barcelona informal settlement near Gugulethu and the airport in Cape Town. Residents showed their displeasure this morning by dumping rubbish on the N2.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 2 September 2015

Jobs more important than smells, say Hangberg residents

The proposed closure of Oceana’s Hout Bay Fishmeal and Fish Oil Facility is worrying people of Hangberg, where many employees live.

Ashleigh Furlong

Feature | 2 September 2015

Refugee amendment bill is a mistake

The phrasing of the Refugee Amendment Bill calls into question the commitment of the Department of Home Affairs to uphold its obligations under the UN Refugee Convention, write Aleck Kuhudzai and Deborah Won of the Agency for Refugee Education, Skills Training and Advocacy (ARESTA).

Aleck Kuhudzai and Deborah Won

Opinion | 2 September 2015