Members and supporters of the Right2Know campaign rallied in the Cape Town CBD yesterday and vowed to take back Parliament for the South African public. This was in response to events at the State of the Nation Address (SONA) which had a "profoundly negative impact on our democracy" according to the organisation.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 20 February 2015
Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille will meet community leaders from Siqalo on Wednesday evening, to discuss grievances that led to violent protests in the Mitchell’s Plain informal settlement two weeks ago. De Lille condemned the protests, but community leaders maintain that residents only went on the rampage weeks after a letter to the mayor had gone unanswered.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 18 February 2015
The City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement evicted land occupiers near Gugulethu on Saturday morning – demolishing six shacks before violent protests erupted. By Monday calm had returned to the community, but the frustrations of shack dwellers from KwaKiki and Sweethome Farm informal settlements continue unrelieved. As police remain on site, residents have vowed that their struggle for land will continue.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 16 February 2015
About 50 students from Sizimisele Technical High School in Khayelitsha left school on Friday morning to march on the Western Cape Department of Education over a shortage of teachers.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 14 February 2015
A Cape Town magistrate has convicted ten activists from the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) for convening an illegal gathering. Although they were discharged with a caution, the group has vowed to appeal the conviction, and to have the Regulations of Gatherings Act declared unconstitutional by a higher court.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 11 February 2015
The first few months of Margaret Papier’s stay in Flamingo Crescent, a shanty town in Lansdowne, were so rough that she considered moving back to her former home underneath Lansdowne Bridge. Now, after three years of upgrading, she and her partner have a modest yet comfortable and electrified home, with access to clean drinking water and a flush toilet outside their front door.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 11 February 2015
A shack fire that tore through Langrug informal settlement in Franschhoek on Saturday has been blamed on a combination of negligence and unexpected load shedding.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 9 February 2015
SJC activists and their supporters descended upon the Cape Town Magistrates' court this morning, anticipating judgment in a trial that has been ongoing, in stops and starts, since July last year. But there was to be no judgment, because part of the court record had been lost.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 6 February 2015
Minister for Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu is in the process of drafting amendments to eviction legislation, in line with the report of the commission of inquiry into the Lwandle evictions last year.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 4 February 2015
The Wine Industry Ethical Trade Association (Wieta), which lists some of the country's top producers, appears to have recanted on its promise to investigate allegations of assault on a farm worker by one of its members. A board member says the organisation has double standards - quick to help its farm owning members, while sweeping aside complaints of abuse from workers.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 30 January 2015
The owner of Eilandia farm will stand trial on charges of assaulting and strangling an employee in the Robertson Magistrates Court on Friday. Whatever the outcome of the case, a local farm workers’ union has heralded the police investigation and court appearance as a victory.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 30 January 2015
Draft regulations for drone usage in South Africa do not have safeguards against the use of the devices by the state as weapons or to invade people’s privacy, activists have warned. But the sub-committee in charge of compiling the regulations has said Constitutional rights will not be violated.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 27 January 2015
With only days to go before the deadline, activists from TB Proof have raised the R230,000 needed for Phumeza Tisile to have cochlear implants. The operation will give Tisile, a tuberculosis patient turned activist, the opportunity to hear again.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 23 January 2015
Mfuleni’s sports complex was vandalised and looted over the festive season. A community leader, who is lobbying for the trashed buildings to be renovated, has blamed the City of Cape Town for cancelling a contract with a security company to protect the grounds.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 22 January 2015
The father of a sixteen-year-old boy who was killed by a mob in Mfuleni yesterday has criticised the police for not being on hand to help prevent the attack or to arrest any of the killers.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 21 January 2015
Last year, the eviction of hundreds of shack dwellers from Lwandle, Strand on the eve of a winter storm sparked a national outcry. Seven months later, construction of alternative accommodation has ceased, and yet dozens of evictees remain homeless - holed up in a temporary relief shelter at a nearby community hall. They have been all but forgotten.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 16 January 2015