The Forum of Immigration Practitioners of South Africa (FIPSA) last week said many visa applications are being rejected by Home Affairs due to the incorrect application of the law, leaving a stream of applicants unable to work, study and pay their bills.
Bernard Chiguvare and Ashleigh Furlong
News | 18 June 2015
At 4am on Wednesday, Cape Town police used teargas and rubber bullets to prevent a group of about 50 residents from Barcelona informal settlement dumping buckets full of human waste onto the N2 highway. Residents said their buckets have not been collected or cleaned for the past four months.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 18 June 2015
A new hockey astro facility funded with a R3 million grant from the Western Cape Provincial Sport Confederation to the Swartland Municipality has raised to questions in the community about how resources are allocated.
Ashleigh Furlong
News | 17 June 2015
Saturday 20 June is World Refugee Day. In a keynote address at an event organised by the Scalabrini Centre and the Holocaust Centre in Cape Town, Caroline Skinner, senior researcher at The African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town, shared timely new research about the role of migrants and refugees in the informal economy.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 17 June 2015
Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron delivered the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture at Oxford University on 16 June. While much longer than pieces we normally carry, the speech is relevant to vital current issues and we present it here in full.
Edwin Cameron
Analysis | 17 June 2015
Informal traders who eke out a living at Strand Pavilion allege that the City will marginalise them as the facility is upgraded. The City says there will be space for the traders, though slightly reduced. The upgrade has been in the pipeline since 2013.
Bernard Chiguvare
News | 17 June 2015
Luxolo “Nana” Ntsantsa was left paralysed from the waist down after a gunman killed his mother and left him for dead in their small shack in Site C, Khayelitsha nearly a year ago.
Barbara Maregele
Feature | 15 June 2015
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The court’s prosecutor alleges that al-Bashir has "criminal responsibility for the crime of genocide … killing members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups … causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of those groups, and deliberately inflicting on those groups conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in part”.
GroundUp Staff
Analysis | 15 June 2015
Today, the Pretoria High Court dismissed the urgent application by Advocate Dali Mpofu on behalf of Mzoxolo Magidwana, who was shot by police during the Marikana massacre, and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), for the Marikana Commission’s findings to be released immediately. The President has given a self-imposed deadline of 30 June for releasing the report.
Fairouz Nagia-Luddy
Opinion | 15 June 2015
There is just the faintest breeze of renewal and democracy wafting through the bureaucratic corridors of Cosatu and disturbing the cobwebs of dogma that have tangled up due process in the country’s largest labour federation. It comes in the form of the election of David Sipunzi as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Terry Bell
News | 15 June 2015
Lwandle’s residents intend to protest on the N2 because they say they are being neglected by SANRAL, the City of Cape Town and the Housing Development Agency (HDA).
Pharie Sefali
News | 12 June 2015
De Waal Drive tenants were assured on Thursday evening by Western Cape MEC for Human Settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela that they will not be evicted unless they are not paying their rent. Madikizela reiterated this point at a press conference this morning.
Ashleigh Furlong
News | 12 June 2015
What was supposed to be an upliftment project for the Salt River community has turned into a nightmare for market organiser Kim van Lingen. The permit for her market was withdrawn days before the second one was to take place.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 12 June 2015
A trial of a Khayelitsha pastor accused of rape was postponed in the Khayelitsha Regional court on Thursday. Pastor Themba Dumisani Mathibela, also known as TD, is facing seven counts of rape.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
Brief | 11 June 2015
Generous GroundUp readers have made sure the Sibhozo brothers of Site C Taiwan informal settlement in Khayelitsha have enough to eat every day.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 11 June 2015
Going to bed on an empty stomach is not something new for Noxolo Mafilika of Site C Taiwan Informal Settlement. The 37-year-old mother of two has been sharing the little she has with the Sibhozo boys who lost their grandmother early this year. GroundUp published their story on 23 April.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 11 June 2015