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

Xenophobic violence and looting in Grahamstown

About 500 shopkeepers and their family members who have immigrated from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Somalia have been forced to abandon their businesses and flee for their lives after they came under attack from residents in the greater Grahamstown area last week. There were more confirmed cases of looting this morning.

Hancu Louw

Brief | 26 October 2015

Masiphumelele residents angered by arrest of community leader

While the student demonstrations were taking place, the sporadic protests that have been taking place in Masiphumelele resumed in the early hours of Friday morning after a community leader was arrested.

GroundUp Staff

News | 26 October 2015

As Zuma agrees to no fee increase, police and students clash in Pretoria and Cape Town

From Pretoria to East London, from Cape Town to Stellenbosch, and even in London, students and their supporters demanded a zero percent increase to fees. But while most of the protests were peaceful, at UWC and Pretoria protesters and police clashed.

GroundUp Staff

News | 23 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

Black advocates tell court they object to ‘racist sting’

This morning, in the silicosis class action, black advocates requested the opportunity to address the court regarding remarks made by a member of one of the legal teams. Approximately 150 black advocates, mostly women, were at court in solidarity with the statement. According to John Stephens, a lawyer with SECTION27, leaders of each legal team "undertook to address the entrenched patterns of racial exclusion in the profession."

Advocates for transformation

Opinion | 23 October 2015