Arts and culture

Connecting youth through music

Kinky Disco brought together youth from in and around Cape Town and hosted a one-of-a-kind electronic dance music party in Langa Township.

Zethu Gqola

News | 11 March 2014

Protest at Cape Town Pride

Not everyone in Cape Town celebrated Gay Pride in the same spirit.

Pharie Sefali

News | 10 March 2014

Kwaito duo Ruffest keep innovating

Starting off in 2004 as Kasi Vibes, kwaito duo Sello Mangwana (29) and Andile “Max” Stemela (31) reinvented themselves as Ruffest in 2007. It was the beginning of the rise of two musicians from Nyanga.

Dumisane Dabadini

News | 10 March 2014

The Khoi blues: Interview with Colin Meyer

“I am not a Coloured, I am Khoi,” says Colin Meyer. “The apartheid era imposed the identity of being Coloured on us, but that is an invention.”

Fergus Turner

News | 7 March 2014

Categories of Persons: Rethinking Ourselves and Others

This slim volume, containing nine essays, is at once ambitious and humble. In their introduction, editors Megan Jones and Jacob Dlamini explain that they tried to capture a variety of deeply personal lived experiences.

Joshua Maserow

News | 5 March 2014

Ugandans in South Africa unhappy with anti-gay law

Uganda’s brutal new anti-gay law puts Dembe Ainebyona (not her real name) in a difficult situation because she may never see her country of birth again.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 4 March 2014

Where is Reason?

After dropping Audio 3D in June 2012, ‘boom bap’ rapper Sizwe ‘Reason’ Moeketsi simply disappeared from the game.

Zethu Gqola

News | 28 February 2014

Is Cape Town Pride serious about gay rights?

Cape Town Pride 2014 (CTP) takes place from 21 February to 1 March. The annual festival aims to celebrate gay rights in South Africa. This year’s theme is “uniting cultures in Cape Town”. However, people from communities around Cape Town have said that they feel CTP excludes them and the serious issues affecting them as gay people.

Jonathan Dockney and GroundUp Staff

News | 27 February 2014

Masello Motana and the politics of personality

A year ago, Masello Motana introduced us to Cyrilina Ramaposer, a rich diva with political and business ambitions. Now she is back as Julia Malema, a lady with a liking for pink dresses, flaxen weaves and pseudo-revolutionary talk.

Sibusiso Tshabalala

News | 20 February 2014

Gugulethu women’s marimba goes national

A group of five Gugulethu women studying at UCT are hitting the big time with their marimba music.

Pharie Sefali

News | 19 February 2014

Last ditch battle for a famous black choral music school, Simon Estes High

Simon Estes Music High School in Wynberg, which was closed down on the first day of term, is fighting a last-ditch battle to survive.

Pharie Sefali

News | 19 February 2014

Choir group in Langa reduces unemployment

Ezethu (“Ours”) is an indigenous choir ensemble that preserves and promotes Xhosa culture by celebrating traditional music. Its members, who come from Gugulethu and Langa, bring ceremonial music to younger generations.

Nika Soon-Shiong

News | 13 February 2014

Gugs dance school gives children self-worth

Self-discipline and self-worth: Zama Dance school instils these much-needed values in children in Gugulethu.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 12 February 2014

Running and other stories: an extract from Makhosazana Xaba’s collection

Makhosazana Xaba’s poetry has been translated into Mandarin and Italian and published in China and Italy. Her first critically acclaimed story, Running, won the Deon Hofmeyr Award for Creative Writing in 2005.

Makhosazana Xaba

News | 11 February 2014

We should write for our readers, not the owner ““ an interview with Ann Crotty

Seasoned financial journalist Ann Crotty has resigned from the Independent Group’s financial daily, the Business Report , after 18 years at the paper. Crotty, the author of award-winning work on executive pay and other issues, spoke to GroundUp about her resignation from Business Report, her views on editorial independence and media ownership.

Sibusiso Tshabalala

News | 11 February 2014

Untitled: an extract from Kgebetli Moele’s latest novel

Kgebetli Moele burst on to the literary scene with Room 207 (Kwela, 2006). That success was followed by The Book of the Dead (2009), a deeply shocking novel whose protagonist deliberately sets out to infect as many people as he possibly can with HIV.

Kgebetli Moele

News | 4 February 2014