A housing dispute in Mfuleni demonstrates how the informal process of transferring title deeds for RDP houses can lead to people losing their money and their homes.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and Siphesihle Matyila
News | 18 August 2015
“They promised us that we would stay for a short period of time. They didn’t keep their promise,” says Amelia Nono, who came to Intersite, a temporary relocation area (TRA) in Langa, nine years ago.
Ashleigh Furlong
Feature | 18 August 2015
About 20 Mfuleni residents were forced to demolish their shacks that they had erected after occupying open land in the township.
Mary-Anne Gontsana and Masixole Feni
Brief | 18 August 2015
On Friday, a number of community members from Monwabisi Park informal settlement laid a charge of malicious damage to property against City of Cape Town law enforcement after shacks were destroyed by the Anti-Land Invasion Unit (ALIU) last Wednesday.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 17 August 2015
A 43-year-old woman who was raped, and stabbed three times in her spine has been left disabled, paralyzed in her right arm and left leg, and unable to speak.
Pharie Sefali
News | 17 August 2015
More than a week after he drowned, the body of Hangberg fisherman Faizel Lee was recovered on Saturday morning. Lee had been catching crayfish close to the Hout Bay fishing settlement. His father, Igsak, made the discovery opposite Duiker Island, near to where fellow fisherman Clint Jacobs’ body was found on 7 August. The two men drowned after going to sea in a wooden rowboat the evening before.
Kimon de Greef
Brief | 17 August 2015
Over the past month, the Western Cape Department of Social Development [DSD] in Athlone has been searching for temporary care volunteers to be trained to house and care for vulnerable children who have either been removed from their homes by a social worker. This can happen for various reasons such as behavioural problems, becoming orphaned or parental neglect and abandonment.
Barbara Maregele
News | 17 August 2015
The South Gauteng High Court has delivered a judgment that promotes openness and helps people injured at work, or the families of people killed at work, realise their rights.
Tim Fish Hodgson
Analysis | 17 August 2015
The Constitutional Court dismissed the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural & Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU)’s plea to overturn a cost order by the Labour Court amounting to R600,000 in legal fees.
Mariska Morris
News | 17 August 2015
Large scale redundancies in the South African mining sector, running to tens of thousands of jobs, are probably inevitable. But only because of the system in which we have to operate.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 17 August 2015
Three years ago on this day, the police shot dead 34 miners at Marikana. Here are some of the articles we've published since then that, sadly, remain current and relevant.
GroundUp Staff
Analysis | 16 August 2015
From the German cut to the razor cut and from dreadlocks to braids, men and women in Cape Town’s townships have plenty of imagination when it comes to trending hairstyles.
Photos by Masixole FeniText by Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 14 August 2015
On 13 August 2015, Potchefstroom police station cells security officer Buisanang Malefane told GroundUp on the phone that Malvern and Hamilton Mugwagwa, who are in their custody, have no right to appear before a magistrate because they are unlawfully in the country. They were arrested on 5 August 2015 at a roadblock in Potchefstroom on their way from Cape Town back to Zimbabwe.
Tariro Washinyira
Brief | 14 August 2015
There is a deepening crisis of overcrowding, joblessness, insecurity and general destitution at Wolwerivier relocation camp. The community have explained their experiences, along with a call for engagement and support, in writing to the City of Cape Town. Their letter was ignored.
Daneel Knoetze
Opinion | 14 August 2015
Evictions are a daily part of living on the margins in South Africa. This week, residents were evicted from a block of flats in Berea, Johannesburg. Authorities descended early on Wednesday morning on the flats where hundreds are people are living. Their personal belongings – including fridges, clothes and computers – were left outside in the street. Where do such people go? In Cape Town, they have been sent to a place called Blikkiesdorp.
Alison Tilley
Opinion | 13 August 2015
When Zandisile Khobeni (61) received a letter showing that his housing subsidy application had been approved in 2011, he was over the moon with joy. He didn't know that four years later he would still be waiting for a house, even as the other people in his street received their RDP houses.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 13 August 2015
Fixing that is not going to be a week's work. It will need earthworks, drainage, and a source of su… Read more
The answer is fairly easy: get honest people who know how to run their maintenance department. Qual… Read more
Our village has the same problems. Our makeshift water lines are constantly bursting. We get water … Read more
I have been on 2mg of suboxone daily for many years now and have been a functioning and contributin… Read more
The situation of 275 -perhaps more, not receiving government subsidies for months is dire and has s… Read more