Hope Street’s pavement carpenter Mark Philander again had his material confiscated by officers from the City of Cape Town Law Enforcement this morning. Now, a local councillor has committed to linking Philander to the City’s informal traders unit in an attempt to find a public space for him to work legally and unhindered.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 13 January 2015
The eleven workers who were dismissed from Steytler Boerdery outside Robertson for taking part in strikes in January 2013 have reached a settlement with their employer and have been reinstated.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 9 January 2015
The minimum wage for farm workers is due to increase at the end of February. But seasonal worker Mercia Plaatjies doesn’t expect the increase to make much difference to her life.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 8 January 2015
The Wynberg Magistrate’s Court “unconstitutionally” ordered Hangberg resident Janina Samuels to choose between homelessness and imprisonment, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has argued in appealing her 2013 conviction for contempt of court.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 8 January 2015
A fundraising campaign has sprung up to pay for cochlear implants that would help former drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patient and current activist Phumeza Tisile regain her hearing.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 19 December 2014
When it is late at night and Cape Town’s streets are quiet, Mark Philander’s faint hammering at his pavement workshop on Hope Street can still be heard.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 18 December 2014
The Department of Labour is investigating allegations of child labour on a grape and mushroom farm in the Hex Valley, outside De Doorns.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 15 December 2014
Hospitals throughout Gauteng ran out of essential medicines in recent weeks, including a life-saving drug for people with AIDS called amphotericin B.
Daneel Knoetze and GroundUp staff
News | 9 December 2014
Farmworkers union Csaawu has launched an online crowd-funding campaign to save it from bankruptcy.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 8 December 2014
Approved Joe Slovo housing beneficiaries, who were deemed to be “too young” by government to receive houses in October, this week moved into their new units at the N2 Gateway development. Other families, who remain behind in the informal settlement, and who are now being moved to make space for the next phase of the housing development, remain unhappy.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 5 December 2014
Police have confirmed that live ammunition was used yesterday against people looting rice from a broken-down truck near Mbizana in the Eastern Cape. Two people were killed.
Pharie Sefali and Daneel Knoetze
News | 3 December 2014
City of Cape Town drone tests are underway, with a new model demonstrated to officials and journalists last week. Critics are uninformed, malicious and have watched “too many movies”, officials say.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 3 December 2014
Shackdwellers from the original settlement in Marikana, Philippi, are celebrating a court interdict which will protect them from being arbitrarily evicted “through the back door”. Interdicts secured by landowners and municipalities are supposed to prohibit further settlement. Yet they are often so vague that they allow for people who have already settled to be removed.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 1 December 2014
The police, civil society and Khayelitsha community activists are beginning to work together to give effect to the commission of inquiry into policing's recommendations. Here's an update on progress so far, and plans for next year.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 28 November 2014
Andaleeb Rinquest remembers the moment she accepted, with certainty, the imminence of her own death.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 26 November 2014
On Thursday, residents of Marikana informal settlement’s Rolihlahla Park section welcomed a Western Cape High Court postponement of an eviction hearing. The court ordered that the City of Cape Town compile an audit of the households living on the erf in question to determine who will need emergency temporary accommodation if an eviction order is granted.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 21 November 2014