Environment
Living off vegetables from a dump site
Like others in Sobantu township where she lives, 42-year-old Nokhukhanya Myeza wakes up at 5am and dresses for work. But while others put on their best clothes, Myeza gets into old sneakers, torn jeans and an old T-shirt, and walks to the New England Landfill dump site in Pietermaritzburg to search and pick up food.
Ntombi Mbomvu
News | 16 November 2015
Drumming up support for vegetable gardens
Plans to grow vegetables on school land, with voluntary gardeners from the homeless in the city, and using water from Table Mountain that otherwise goes to waste, are at an advanced stage says Jessie Khulisa, strategic partnership manager at Khulisa Social Solutions (KSS).
Bernard Chiguvare
News | 6 November 2015
West Coast mine boss must go, say staff
A gyrocopter overflying the embattled MSR Tormin mine near the remote West Coast town of Vredendal was shot at last month, according to a witness who reported the alleged incident to the local police.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 6 November 2015
Mining company “lied” to its shareholders
Representatives of the Amadiba community in the Eastern Cape have accused Australian company Mineral Commodities, part owner of the Tormin mine on the West Coast, of lying to its shareholders.
GroundUp Staff with AmaBhungane
News | 6 November 2015
Lawyers in black and white: Spoor vs Boqwana
The recent furore over the lawyers in the huge silicosis court case focused on race, but the real issue is how lawyers advance the cause of justice, argue Pasika Nontshiza and John Clarke.
Pasika Nontshiza and John GI Clarke
Opinion | 23 October 2015
Silicosis case: mines are being obstructive, say miners’ lawyers
If the court did not decide in favour of the gold miners in the silicosis case, hundreds of thousands of sick miners and their families would not be heard, advocates for the mineworkers told the Gauteng High Court yesterday.
Pete Lewis
News | 23 October 2015
Silicosis: Anglo American plays the race card
Attempts by lawyers for mining giant Anglo American to play the race card in the silicosis case were rebuffed by the South Gauteng High Court yesterday.
Pete Lewis
News | 22 October 2015
Court hears whether silicosis miners can bring class action
Lawyers for the mining companies have begun to set out their case in the South Gauteng High Court, which is hearing an application from mineworkers to be allowed to claim for damages due to exposure to silica dust on behalf of a bigger group of affected mineworkers.
Lwandile Fikeni and GroundUp staff
News | 15 October 2015
The Piketty puzzle: reproducing inequality in everyday life
While the government earnestly pledges its commitment to reversing inequality, it reproduces inequality in the normal behaviour it expects for itself and the broader elite of South Africa’s political-economy. Two recent and very public events illustrate these opposing positions.
Jeff Rudin
Opinion | 13 October 2015