How to hold local government accountable
The elections this year will be for our provincial and national governments. But it is our local government, our mayors and ward councillors, who are responsible for much of the service delivery that affects our day-to-day lives, such as refuse collection, sanitation and day clinics.
Fergus Turner and GroundUp Staff
News | 14 January 2014
Labour Department fails to follow up on sick workers’ claims
On 13 November 2013, GroundUp reported that Cassiem Mahommed has been waiting for over six years for compensation from the City of Cape Town for asbestosis. The Department of Labour immediately contacted GroundUp after publication and promised to follow up with Mahommed Disturbingly, there has been no progress on the matter.
Jonathan Dockney
News | 14 January 2014
Court orders access to Stellenbosch’s deadly initiation school
Seven boys were admitted to Stellenbosch Hospital on the evenings of 25 and 26 November. Two were dead on arrival. One had sjambok marks on his body. They were about 20 years old. They were the victims of an initiation school.
Jonathan Dockney
News | 9 January 2014
School marked for closure gets it right
Peak View Secondary School in Bridgetown, Athlone was one of 27 schools marked for closure by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). Nearly two years later Peak View's matric results are top in its district.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
News | 8 January 2014
Clarity, Kriel and the Cape Times
A lack of adequate resources and asset-stripping by the Irish carpetbagger Tony — now Sir Anthony — O'Reilly are the real problems with the Cape Times, not the undeniable quality, let alone pigmentation, of the staff. But there are other issues too that require examination.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 29 December 2013
Rent a crowd protest - an attack on media freedom
Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois was fired by Iqbal Surve, executive chairperson of the Sekunjalo Consortium, the day after Mandela’s death.
Shireen Mukadam
Opinion | 18 December 2013
Cape Times demo: plot thickens
It now appears that it was the fairly recently ordained pastor and political changeling, Wesley Douglas, who was one of the organisers of the group that gatecrashed a Right to Know (R2K) protest in Cape Town yesterday.
Terry Bell
News | 18 December 2013
Goons attempt to disrupt protest for press freedom
The saga of the Cape Times and South Africa’s Independent Newspapers (INL) group plumbed new depths of farce this afternoon (December 17) when a rent-a-crowd arrived in the city to support the putative new owner, Iqbal Survé.
Terry Bell
News | 17 December 2013
Mandela and the dangers of deification
As everyone from monarchs to the labouring masses this week sought to share in the Mandela memorial moment, the myth machine went into overdrive, the very machine Mandela had so disparaged when I sat with him in his Johannesburg office in 1992. One sentence he uttered then has resonated with me throughout the years: “I am no messiah.”
Terry Bell
Opinion | 17 December 2013