At Cosatu’s 12th national congress, delegates resolved to support a call for a national minimum wage of between R4,125 and R5,276 a month. Here is an edited summary of the congress declaration.
Cosatu
Analysis | 2 December 2015
The court hearing of Hangberg resident Santonio Jonkers will be prioritised next year, says Magistrate Wezile Rixana. Jonkers is accused of contravening a 2011 High Court interdict that prevented anyone from building new structures on the Sentinel’s firebreak above Hangberg in Hout Bay.
Barbara Maregele
Brief | 2 December 2015
Young children and teenagers packed Khayelitsha's Mew Way Hall to the brim today. They were entertained by the Zip Zap Circus and the Jazzart Dance Theatre. But besides having a day of fun, they also learnt about HIV and how to stay healthy, whether or not infected by the virus.
GroundUp Staff and Bernard ChiguvarePhotos by Masixole Feni
News | 1 December 2015
Waste pickers at a Pietermaritzburg dumpsite say they have to compete with municipal officials who have also started picking up materials from the site.
Ntombi Mbomvu
News | 1 December 2015
Mahlubini Junior Secondary School near Cofimvaba has close to 300 students, no electricity in the classrooms and no running water.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 1 December 2015
Grade 11 student Achuma Mjikeliso was among a few dozen members of Equal Education protesting outside the Eastern Cape Education Department in King William’s Town yesterday. Her main complaint: leaking roofs in her classroom.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 1 December 2015
Nolufefe Mhlangeni lost her mother and her two-year-old daughter in a fire in Masiphumelele in 2013. On Sunday, she lost her home.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 30 November 2015
Who is responsible for Blikkiesdorp? This question has been coming up in response to work in the community by the Open Democracy Advice Centre.
Alison Tilley
Opinion | 30 November 2015
Nomveliso Rululu says she wept with relief last Friday when she received a pay-out of R10,000 from Emerald Life to cover the funeral costs of her disabled teenage daughter.
Siyavuya Khaya
News | 30 November 2015
“The ANC came before democracy.” This statement by President Jacob Zuma was obviously incorrect since the concept of democracy pre-dated the formation of the ANC in 1912 by about 2,500 years.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 30 November 2015
Tuberculosis (TB) killed 1.5 million people last year according to the World Health Organisation. Yet research money for TB is stagnating or even declining, according to a new report by the US based Treatment Action Group (TAG).
GroundUp staff
News | 30 November 2015
One of the most successful agents of the apartheid state was the editor in chief of the country’s leading Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Times. This claim is contained in a book by veteran journalist John Matisonn to be released this week.
Terry Bell
News | 30 November 2015
Distraught residents wander amongst the ash, corrugated iron, rubble and smoke of Section D in Masiphumelele, a township in Cape Town's south peninsula. In the last few hours, thousands have lost their homes and possessions. Two fire engines stand at the edge of the burnt areas.
GroundUp Staff
Brief | 29 November 2015
In a dimly-lit room, about 50 people wait to have proof-of-residence documents authorised by Dunoon ward councillor Lubabalo Makeleni.
Steve Kretzmann
Feature | 27 November 2015
A spat erupted on Twitter this week when Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) director Zackie Achmat accused City of Cape Town’s Benedicta van Minnen of being ‘a liar’ and ‘one who holds black people in contempt’.
Barbara Maregele
News | 27 November 2015
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting a social dialogue between business, labour and other constituencies over setting a national minimum wage (NMW). This is the final installment of a three part series by two University of Cape Town professors.
Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings
Analysis | 26 November 2015
The youth needs housing but now they are being forced to rent flats and unaffordable houses. When w… Read more
The longer they take, the more the staff can steal. I've heard stories of Cape Town senior citizens… Read more
Why doesn't the government employ young people who finished university at SASSA offices? Or childre… Read more
I have experienced exactly the same thing: long queues out in the cold and being turned away with m… Read more
We all waited at Wynberg yesterday with queries. By 3pm we demanded to see a person in charge. A ma… Read more