Human Rights

Can Khayelitsha be policed?

The Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry has entered its third week. Its aim is to investigate the allegations that SAPS have been inefficient in their policing of Khayelitsha and that there has been a breakdown in police-community relations.

Adam Armstrong

Opinion | 3 February 2014

When a police van hit and killed our child

This is a shortened transcript of a witness testimony given at the Khayelitsha Commission last week.

Transcript from Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry

News | 3 February 2014

Witness alleges police accepted bribe in murder case

While testifying today at the Khayelitsha Commission, a witness stated she believes the officer investigating the murder of her son accepted a bribe to stop his investigation.

Adam Armstrong

News | 30 January 2014

Brave women and burnt-out cops

Funeka Soldaat told the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry how she had been raped by a group of young men because she is a lesbian. She testified that she is a survivor of "corrective rape".

Adam Armstrong

News | 29 January 2014

The week in political activism

This week we cover Corruption Watch, the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry and protests over the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

Brent Meersman

News | 29 January 2014

Principals describe hardships of running schools in Khayelitsha

Principals of two Khayelitsha schools gave testimony at the Khayelitsha Commission yesterday. They explained how crime affected their institutions.

Adam Armstrong

News | 29 January 2014

“Police do not care” - chilling testimony at Khayelitsha Commission

Malwande Msongelwa found her brother dead at a bus-stop near her house. He had been stabbed. She called the emergency number, 10111. There was no response.

Adam Armstrong

News | 28 January 2014

Commissioner klaps SAPS for inefficiency

At the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, the morning got off to a rocky start for the SAPS legal counsel with Chairperson Justice Kate O’Regan again verbally reprimanding them.

Adam Armstrong

News | 27 January 2014

Most of Khayelitsha is policeable

At the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, Phumeza Mlungwana has given evidence.

Adam Armstrong

News | 27 January 2014

Harrowing testimony about vigilante killing

This morning the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry heard disturbing accounts of vigilante justice.

Adam Armstrong

News | 24 January 2014

Will the cars be safe here?

It was another sweltering hot day as the Commission of Inquiry continued its inspections around Khayelitsha. Crime hotspots and locations for community courts were visited. These include Nkanini, Harare Park and Ilitha Park.

Adam Armstrong

News | 23 January 2014

Business Report puts Terry Bell on “indefinite hold”

Terry Bell is a regular contributor to GroundUp. In addition to occasionally writing original material for first publication on GroundUp, he also kindly allows us to republish his Business Report column.

GroundUp Editor

News | 22 January 2014

Home Affairs violates court order - man arrested despite effort to be lawful

A 21-year-old Somali man, Ibrahim Abdulkhadir from Malmesbury, was turned away from the Cape Town Refugee Reception Offices (RRO) on 5 July 2012 and denied an opportunity to collect his asylum document and legalise his stay in the country.

Tariro Washinyira

Feature | 22 January 2014

Police detain Zimbabweans for over 15 days

Three Zimbabwean men were detained at Richmond Police Station for over 15 days for being in the country unlawfully. The police were apparently waiting upon Immigration Services of the Department of Home Affairs to deport the men.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 22 January 2014

Leaked email: companies intended to campaign against government policy

A leaked email shows that a plan for a campaign to scuttle the South African government's draft intellectual property policy was about to proceed, despite a denial by the pharmaceutical industry that it had approved the campaign.

GroundUp Staff

News | 21 January 2014

Sick mine workers neglected - time to compensate them

Far from the bustling streets of downtown Johannesburg, much of it built by the bounty of South Africa’s gold mines, thousands of former mineworkers suffer from painful diseases contracted on the job. These men labour to breathe, their lungs degraded by the occupational diseases of silicosis and tuberculosis.

Ryan Boyko, Seyward Darby, and Rose Goldberg

News | 20 January 2014