Dispute over jobs sparks protest in Barcelona informal settlement

A battle over jobs at Mawose Cleaning Services, contracted by the City of Cape Town to clean Barcelona informal settlement, sparked a protest which cut off a section of the N2 highway on Sunday night.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik

News | 20 July 2015

Top cops try to reassure Khayelitsha community

On Saturday at a meeting convened by police at Siviwe Primary School in Khwezi Park, police pleaded with the Khayelitsha community not to resort to vigilantism.

Vincent Lali

Brief | 20 July 2015

COSATU still divided after national congress

Behind a very flimsy screen of unity and cohesion promoted over the past week by Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini, the divisions in the country’s largest labour federation have become even greater. And, amid a welter of contradiction and debates about constitutionality, it is not surprising that so much confusion reigns.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 20 July 2015

No more fish at “snoek point,

The fish seller at “snoek point” has been told by City authorities to move away from the busy road intersection of Spine and Eisleben Roads in Mitchell’s Plain.

Bernard Chiguvare

News | 17 July 2015

How Constitutional are the regulations on public gatherings?

Lobbyists and civil organisations who attended the City of Cape Town's information session on public gatherings this week believe that applying for permission to march is unconstitutional.

Barbara Maregele

News | 17 July 2015

MyCiTi buses phase out taxi services on West Coast

Minibus taxi services along the west coast are being displaced by the MyCiTi bus system. According to the City, 229 taxis have already been removed. By the end of August, no taxi services will be licensed to operate on MyCiTi bus routes in the Tableview and Dunoon area with the exception of the Ysterplaat Taxi Association which will operate until its licences expire. These are set to expire between 2016 and 2018.

Mariska Morris

News | 17 July 2015

Swanepoel yindoda!

Skin colour is a thing of the past, says a white man from East London, Gonubie area, who recently entered manhood in the Xhosa tradition.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik

News | 16 July 2015

21 at 21: The coming of age of a nation

In their newly released book, 21 at 21: The Coming of Age of a Nation, Melanie Verwoerd and Sonwabiso Ngcowa write that the term ‘born free’ is highly contested. ‘Many young people refuse to be labelled in this way, not least because of the level of poverty they still experience. As one ‘born free’ put it to us, “How can we be called born free when we live like this?”’

Melanie Verwoerd and Sonwabiso Ngcowa

News | 16 July 2015

Living in a graveyard

For the past few years, the old Jewish burial site located south of Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town has become a home to a number of homeless people.

Siphesihle Matyila

News | 16 July 2015

Best friends have scales, wings and tails.

Photographer Masixole Feni has done a series of portraits of people and their pets and animals in Cape Town's townships. He found some surprising friendships.

Masixole Feni

News | 15 July 2015

In 80 years, she’s never lived in a warm house

“I don’t know how it feels to be in a warm house without a leaking roof,” says Betha Mkhize, who is in her eighties and lives in Ezinketheni in Pietermaritzburg with her mentally disabled son.

Ntombi Ngubane

News | 15 July 2015

Street artists battle over De Waal mural

A group of anonymous street artists called Space Invader has claimed responsibility for “reinterpreting” the mural in District Six along De Waal Drive near Cape Town city centre.

Barbara Maregele

News | 15 July 2015

Economic growth at stake at Cosatu’s congress

Cosatu’s Special National Congress this week marks the latest round in the ongoing battle for control of the federation of trade unions between its ANC-faithful Central Executive Committee and its former Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi, along with the expelled National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).

Ayal Belling

Opinion | 15 July 2015

Good Hope Construction: workers’ demands still being probed

The Building Industry Bargaining Council is investigating employees’ claims that money is still owed to the Council by Good Hope Construction (GHC), target of a protracted strike during which one employee died.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and GroundUp staff

News | 14 July 2015

Sesfikile ,“ the women’s winery

Even though she once despised wine because her brother would get drunk, Nondumiso Pikashe from Gugulethu has made a success of her own handcrafted wines. She thinks more people could tap into the industry.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 14 July 2015

Workers ride in cattle trucks of the gravy train

We are constantly being told, as the economy stutters and stumbles, that “we are all in it together”; that we have a “shared future”; that we have a patriotic duty to “build the nation”. And, for all the tub-thumping rhetoric about the evils of capitalism, this will almost certainly be the underlying theme of the Cosatu special national congress next week.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 14 July 2015