Human Rights
“If I move out, where will I go?,
Residents of houses on a state farm in Stellenbosch will hear next year whether the Western Cape High Court will grant the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works an order to evict them.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 3 November 2015
Women living in terror plan march in Grahamstown
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
UCT commits to “insourcing” - and other reports from the #FeesMustFall protests
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
Mother accuses principal of caning her son
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
Tense wait for silicosis decision
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
We are putting our bodies on the line, say students at Ashley Kriel Memorial
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
Lessons from the student protests of the 1980s
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
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