Three years ago on this day, the police shot dead 34 miners at Marikana. Here are some of the articles we've published since then that, sadly, remain current and relevant.
GroundUp Staff
Analysis | 16 August 2015
There is a deepening crisis of overcrowding, joblessness, insecurity and general destitution at Wolwerivier relocation camp. The community have explained their experiences, along with a call for engagement and support, in writing to the City of Cape Town. Their letter was ignored.
Daneel Knoetze
Opinion | 14 August 2015
Evictions are a daily part of living on the margins in South Africa. This week, residents were evicted from a block of flats in Berea, Johannesburg. Authorities descended early on Wednesday morning on the flats where hundreds are people are living. Their personal belongings – including fridges, clothes and computers – were left outside in the street. Where do such people go? In Cape Town, they have been sent to a place called Blikkiesdorp.
Alison Tilley
Opinion | 13 August 2015
When Zandisile Khobeni (61) received a letter showing that his housing subsidy application had been approved in 2011, he was over the moon with joy. He didn't know that four years later he would still be waiting for a house, even as the other people in his street received their RDP houses.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 13 August 2015
More than 7,000 people are homeless in Cape Town and a large percentage of them are male. This is according to the City of Cape Town's Social Development and Early Childhood Development Directorate's survey.
Bernard Chiguvare and Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 6 August 2015
Families living in five state farms in Stellenbosch say they refuse to go anywhere after being handed eviction notices last month from the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works, saying they should leave their homes by end of August. The families are planning to march today to air their grievances.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 6 August 2015
It’s raining lightly and there’s a cold breeze as Isgak Abrahams and his two young children huddle inside the small makeshift tent they call home. The tent, built on an open field near the Kapteinsklip train station in Mitchells Plain, is made of three large blankets, cardboard boxes and plastic sheets, all held down by a few bricks.
Barbara Maregele
News | 3 August 2015
A year after their eviction from land owned by the SA National Roads Agency (SANRAL), some Lwandle residents say their possessions were never returned to them. But SANRAL says the goods were placed under the control of a community leader, and the agency is not to blame if residents did not get their belongings back.
GroundUp staff
News | 31 July 2015
Dozens of Metro Law Enforcement officers swooped on Wolwerivier relocation camp on Wednesday morning. They broke locks and ejected two households deemed to have occupied the municipal built structures unlawfully. Yet, a community leader has called this show of force an insult, citing the general lack of safety and protection for Wolwerivier's inhabitants.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 30 July 2015