Khayelitsha teenagers off to Sweden

Five teenagers from Khayelitsha are preparing to embark on a journey to Sweden to take part in an international programme.

Jon Adam Chen

News | 4 June 2015

Where the lambs have no eyes

When Manie Louw took over a farm outside Paternoster last year his neighbours warned him about three things: stock theft, jackals, and pied crows. Louw, a 53 year-old sheep farmer from Calvinia, grew up raising livestock, and thought himself familiar with the risks of the trade. He brought 42 aging Dorper ewes to the coast with him, hoping to fatten them for slaughter on the farm’s Strandveld vegetation. “I didn’t know what people meant about the crows,” he said.

Kimon de Greef

News | 4 June 2015

Has the president used the defence force legally?

To deploy the army is an exceptional measure. It implies that the police force is unable to control a situation that threatens a country’s security and well-being.

Lara Wallis

Analysis | 4 June 2015

Lwandle one year later: still no resolution

On 2 and 3 June a year ago the residents of Lwandle Strand were evicted from the SANRAL-owned land that they were occupying. Besides losing their homes, many also lost their belongings. Yesterday, the evicted residents of Lwandle protested despite heavy rains, demanding to be listened to about their problems.

Pharie Sefali

News | 3 June 2015

Artist Zwelethu Mthethwa up for murder: trial begins

On Tuesday, the murder trial of artist Zwelethu Mthethwa finally began after numerous postponements. Mthethwa is accused of killing Nokuphila Kumalo, a sex worker, and kicking her with his booted feet. Mthethwa is pleading not guilty to the charge which has a minimum sentence of 15 years.

Ashleigh Furlong

News | 3 June 2015

Mfuleni school kids taught in a shack

As Cape Town weather gets worse, some Grade R learners from Mfuleni are being taught in a cold leaking shack with just one toilet, because there is insufficient space for them in a proper school.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 3 June 2015

Masiphumelele school hopes for new hall

With winter underway, Ukanyo Primary School can no longer hold its parent-teacher meetings in the open. But the school has no hall, and no immediate prospect of getting one, says principal Phuthumile Michael Tyhali.

Bernard Chiguvare

Brief | 3 June 2015

Imizamo Yethu residents brace for cold winds and heavy rains

Richard Ngcongolo is one of thousands of informal settlement residents across Cape Town whose homes are left waterlogged by heavy rainfall during the winter months. Ngcongolo, a resident of Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, huddles around a small paraffin heater while three large plastic buckets fill with water dripping through the roof of his two-room shack.

Barbara Maregele

News | 3 June 2015

Battling to be accepted in South Africa

Being accepted in South Africa is hard for foreigners, say Ethiopians living in Cape Town.

Christine Ayela

News | 2 June 2015

Urgent need to decriminalise sex work

If sex work was accepted as legitimate and legalised, much of the violence and abuse that sex workers face would be eliminated.

Savannah Russo. Photographs by Eric Miller.

Opinion | 2 June 2015

Philippi: What’s behind the violence?

Philippi has been struck by violence this past week. At least three people have died, including 68-year-old Karel Dilgee who was struck by a stone while driving. There have also been five attempted murders and two houses destroyed by fire. Several cars and at least one Golden Arrow bus have been set alight. Ten people have been arrested, charged with public violence. Residents from neighbouring areas, Marikana and Lower Crossroads, have been fighting with each other. What is causing the violence between these communities?

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and GroundUp Staff

News | 1 June 2015

Activists to Mthethwa: “Who gave you the right to kill a sex worker?”

On Monday the murder trial of renowned artist Zwelethu Mthethwa was postponed again in the Western Cape High Court. Mthethwa is accused of murdering Nokuphila Kumalo, 23, who was a sex worker in Woodstock, on 14 April 2013.

Ashleigh Furlong

News | 1 June 2015

Women and addiction: a much neglected problem

Mother’s Day has come and gone with the usual emphasis on happy mothers, loving families and children bringing breakfast in bed to their moms. For many this picture is a good reflection of what happens at home. But for some mothers this picture is far from accurate.

Adrienne Dodds

Opinion | 1 June 2015

An old lesson to which all should pay heed

“No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent.” So wrote the English poet, John Donne although, for continent he meant planet. Today, this is something that can be applied equally to a village, town, country or continent. Just as it can be to a trade union, business or employer organisation.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 1 June 2015

UCT and transformation

In April and May 2015 we published a five-part series on UCT and transformation:

By

Feature | 1 June 2015

City spends hundreds of millions of rand on informal settlement sanitation: a response to the SJC

The latest in a string of articles by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), disseminating inaccurate and misleading information, further warps the facts and the realities within which the City of Cape Town must operate. But then, the SJC never let the facts get in the way of the pretty graphics that they have begun to share widely with such gusto.

Ernest Sonnenberg

Opinion | 29 May 2015