Human Rights

Constitutional rights apply to sex workers too

A year ago, some boys in my street came home late at night with a sex worker. They refused to pay her.

Abigail McDougall

Opinion | 22 January 2015

“Silence must not be allowed to win”

Today GroundUp publishes this image in solidarity with journalists all over the world following the attack in Paris on ​the staff of ​Charlie Hebdo, in which ten journalists and two police officers were killed.

GroundUp Staff

News | 7 January 2015

Farewell to a lovable revolutionary

Sadie Forman (1929-2014) one of the most unconventional, interesting and lovable fighters in the South African anti-apartheid movement, died on the morning of 11 December, aged 85. She spent the last years of her life with her daughter, Sara, in Lewes, in the East Sussex county of England. Her funeral will be held on 23 December.

Terry Bell

News | 19 December 2014

Hope Street carpenter shut down

When it is late at night and Cape Town’s streets are quiet, Mark Philander’s faint hammering at his pavement workshop on Hope Street can still be heard.

Daneel Knoetze

Feature | 18 December 2014

No sign of Zuma’s sanitary towels

In 2011, President Jacob Zuma made promises about the provision of sanitary towels to poor women. Three years later, GroundUp tried to find out whether these promises have been kept.

Pharie Sefali

News | 17 December 2014

R3.30 an hour: De Doorns child labour probed

The Department of Labour is investigating allegations of child labour on a grape and mushroom farm in the Hex Valley, outside De Doorns.

Daneel Knoetze

Feature | 15 December 2014

Empty medicine shelves of Gauteng hospital

Gauteng hospitals are suffering severe medicine stockouts. Here are photos that GroundUp has obtained of the empty shelves of a pharmacy in a Gauteng tertiary hospital. All the medicines shown (or, to be more precise, not shown) are used to treat psychiatric conditions.

GroundUp Staff

News | 12 December 2014

Know Your Constitution: a challenge to students

This is a challenge to young people, and to law students in particular, to think about how we can use the law to effect change: we have a Constitution now, but what are we going to do with it?

Rachel Mazower and Isabeau Steytler

Opinion | 10 December 2014

Parow’s block of flats from hell

Immigrants who live in Goodman Close and Le Ruth Close at 194 Voortrekker Road Parow are fed up with the awful conditions they live in.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 10 December 2014

Life-saving AIDS medicine out of stock in Gauteng

Hospitals throughout Gauteng ran out of essential medicines in recent weeks, including a life-saving drug for people with AIDS called amphotericin B.

Daneel Knoetze and GroundUp staff

News | 9 December 2014

Residents blame Eskom and Zuma for fire that leaves dozens homeless

Residents of Kanana informal settlement in Gugulethu have blamed power cuts for a fire that left over a hundred people homeless on Friday evening.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 8 December 2014

Two dead as police fire on crowd looting rice

Police have confirmed that live ammunition was used yesterday against people looting rice from a broken-down truck near Mbizana in the Eastern Cape. Two people were killed.

Pharie Sefali and Daneel Knoetze

News | 3 December 2014

Militarisation and depoliticisation in South Africa today

One of the striking features of South African politics in recent years is its re-militarisation - a tendency for political issues to be addressed or resolved by force. This is part of a wider problem of violence suffusing South African society in general - that people, especially men, vent their anger with violence rather than discuss what has caused them to be annoyed in areas unrelated to politics, for example so-called “road rage”.

Raymond Suttner

Opinion | 2 December 2014

Eviction by the back door

Shackdwellers from the original settlement in Marikana, Philippi, are celebrating a court interdict which will protect them from being arbitrarily evicted “through the back door”. Interdicts secured by landowners and municipalities are supposed to prohibit further settlement. Yet they are often so vague that they allow for people who have already settled to be removed.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 1 December 2014

Khayelitsha police, community and activists find ways to tackle crime

The police, civil society and Khayelitsha community activists are beginning to work together to give effect to the commission of inquiry into policing's recommendations. Here's an update on progress so far, and plans for next year.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 28 November 2014

Massive march to Parliament to demand Shabangu does more to end violence

“No more lip services, we want action. No more boardroom activism, no more!” shouted thousands of activists as they marched to parliament today.

Thembela Ntongana

News | 27 November 2014