In the blistering hot conference room of the Masifunde Education and Development Project Trust, 14 women with determined calm put together a statement: 'The police have told us that we must not go ahead with our planned protest at the City Hall on Friday as they cannot guarantee our safety. We cannot and will not back down'. The Voices of the Foreigner’s Wives represent a large number of women still too afraid to leave their homes after the spate of xenophobic violence that shook Grahamstown a week ago.
Hancu Louw
News | 29 October 2015
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has agreed, in principle, to employ its workers directly, and charges were dropped against 23 protesters. But at Wits, students and reporters were intimidated by protesters. Here are reports of today's protest activities from Cape Town, East London and Johannesburg.
GroundUp staff
News | 28 October 2015
Despite the South African Schools Act prohibiting the use of corporal punishment, caning continues in many schools. Now a Pietermaritzburg mother has had enough, and she's laid a complaint with the police against her son's school principal.
Ntombi Mbomvu
News | 28 October 2015
Mineworkers with silicosis and TB will have to wait a while to find out whether they can be represented as a class in legal action for damages against the gold mines which employed them.
Pete Lewis
News | 26 October 2015
Students will shut down universities until there is agreement on a 0% fee increase next year, representatives of student organisations said in Cape Town last night.
GroundUp staff
News | 23 October 2015
Activist Mandy Sanger, who was part of student-led opposition to apartheid through the Committee of 81 in Cape Town, delivered the annual Ashley Kriel memorial lecture sponsored by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and the University of the Western Cape last night. Here is a brief extract from her speech.
Mandy Sanger
Opinion | 23 October 2015
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
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
Over 800 students and student groups from 200 international institutions have signed a statement of support for the #FeesMustFall protesters.
Over 800 signatories
Opinion | 23 October 2015
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
Amidst the #FeesMustFall protests, a second #MustFall has emerged and has largely fallen under the radar: #ThePriceOfBreadMustFall. On Tuesday, a group of activists occupied the Shoprite in Khayelitsha Mall demanding lower food prices generally, and bread prices in particular.
Jane Battersby-Lennard
Analysis | 22 October 2015
Lawyers for gold mining companies ERPM, DRD and Anglo American added their voices on Tuesday to those of their colleagues fighting the silicosis action in the South Gauteng High Court.
Pete Lewis
News | 21 October 2015
Mines cannot be held liable for TB, advocates for the gold mines told the South Gauteng High Court yesterday.
Pete Lewis
News | 20 October 2015
Over 500 residents marched and sang through the streets of Masiphumelele on Sunday in a march for peace organised by the Masiphumelele Youth Development Forum (MYDF). The march comes after weeks of violence, including murders and rapes, incidents of mob justice, a march for more policing that turned violent, and after residents held a prayer service on Thursday for a better community.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 20 October 2015
About 25 workers at the Australian-owned Tormin mine on the west coast, who went on strike last month, were suspended on Sunday.
Barbara Maregele
Brief | 19 October 2015
In 2012 South Africa’s social grant and pension payment system changed in two important ways: Firstly, administration and payment was outsourced by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to a single private company called Cash Paymaster Services (CPS); secondly, and as a result, all social grants began to be paid directly into specifically-created bank accounts for every beneficiary.
Ben Stanwix
News | 16 October 2015