Society

Somali community run school to learn English

Somali Association of South Africa (SASA) Western Cape chairperson Abdikadir Mohamed has established an English school project with the help of the Scalabrini Centre.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 6 February 2014

Less than 2km of Upington street paved after a year

An expanded public works project in Upington to pave three streets of 1.8km is incomplete a year later and no account can be given of the project by the Department of Public Works, the local municipality, or the responsible councillor.

Selby Nomnganga

News | 5 February 2014

Untitled: an extract from Kgebetli Moele’s latest novel

Kgebetli Moele burst on to the literary scene with Room 207 (Kwela, 2006). That success was followed by The Book of the Dead (2009), a deeply shocking novel whose protagonist deliberately sets out to infect as many people as he possibly can with HIV.

Kgebetli Moele

News | 4 February 2014

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

Philippi school struggles to get help for disabled learners

This article has been withdrawn due to problems with it that we are unable to address. GroundUp apologises.

Pharie Sefali

News | 30 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

Lawyer to Home Affairs: treatment of asylum seekers is irresponsible, hard-hearted, incompetent

Hundreds of asylum seekers who have been living in Cape Town for more than five years and have renewed their documents more than twelve times are now undocumented. They may lose their work. They no longer have access to health, education, and bank accounts. And they are vulnerable to arrest, detention and deportation.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 29 January 2014

Terry Bell “honoured and humbled” by support

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has condemned the suspension of Terry Bell's Inside Labour column that ran in Business Report for about 18 years.

GroundUp Staff, Terry Bell and COSATU

News | 29 January 2014

Mother and daughter: alive, productive and healthy on antiretrovirals

Nandipha Madolo, from Khayelitsha’s Litha Park, has experienced much in her life, with HIV playing a major part. She watched her brother die from meningitis due to HIV. Her HIV-positive husband abused her. Her youngest daughter contracted HIV, and Madolo found out that she too was HIV-positive. But today Madolo has a healthy daughter, a steady job, and she is a public speaker.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 29 January 2014

Pharma plot has consequences for the blind

If a secret plot by foreign pharmaceutical companies and their local subsidiaries to delay South Africa's IP policy process until after the elections succeeds, non-pharmaceutical sectors will also be affected.

Marcus Low

Opinion | 29 January 2014

Over 40 degrees but not a heat wave in Upington

Temperatures in Upington in the Northern Cape have risen to over 40 degrees. But it’s still not an official heatwave for this scorching hot part of the country.

Selby Nomnganga

Brief | 28 January 2014

Young Blood: an extract from Sifiso Mzobe’s novel

South Africa had been waiting for a novel like Young Blood when it won the coveted Sunday Times Fiction Prize in 2011. Community newspaper journalist Sifiso Mzobe set his debut novel in his hometown of Umlazi, Durban. It is a racy, fast-paced, stark narrative told from the side of the railway tracks where crime is part and parcel of everyday township life.

Sifiso Mzobe

News | 28 January 2014

Cape Flats artists launch magazine

A group of young artists are putting their creativity on the map. They have launched a magazine called Motswako, which means ‘mixture’ or ‘diversity’.

Pharie Sefali

News | 27 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