Economy

Link between poor housing, traffic deaths and education outcomes

The 7th annual Irene Grootboom Memorial Dialogues, which explore the continuation of Cape Town’s “spatial apartheid”, are underway. On Tuesday night, the focus was on the spate of shack evictions around the city this year, and the correlation between poor, densely populated areas and traffic deaths and education outcomes.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 19 November 2014

We know how to bear hardships, says Chinese trader in Khayelitsha

Next to a small fruit stand and across the street from a hodgepodge of street vendors, Cuiyi Lin sits in front of her furniture store every day waiting for customers. She is the only non-African in the area.

Joyce Xi

Feature | 19 November 2014

Making a go of graphics in Gugulethu

Bheki Kunene started his own business, Mind Trix Media, in 2009 with just R600 and a computer. Today he has eight employees and clients across the globe.

Siyabonga Kalipa

News | 18 November 2014

Small Claims court opens its doors in Khayelitsha

The Khayelitsha Community has been urged to use the small claims court to resolve financial disputes for amounts of up to R15,000. The court was relaunched on Friday. It was established in 2010, but never functioned.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 17 November 2014

Over a million children fall through foster care cracks

Over a million orphans and abused, neglected, and abandoned children in South Africa are falling through the cracks of an overburdened foster care system.

Joyce Xi

Feature | 12 November 2014

It takes a worker 100 years to earn what a director earns in one year

In 1993, it would have taken the average labourer 40 years to earn what the average executive director of a top company in South Africa earned in a year.

Alide Dasnois

News | 12 November 2014

Current struggles of historic school that Biko attended

Forbes Grant Senior Secondary School is not safe. The flimsy fence structure around the school is easily breakable. On the school’s perimeter, the fence has gaping holes in many places. In some parts, there is no fence at all.

Daniel Linde

Opinion | 12 November 2014

Call for national minimum wage of R5,000 a month

“We would like the government to legislate a national minimum wage of R4,500 so that the private sector cannot get away with murder,” Langa resident Fezile Olifant told a parliamentary hearing on the national minimum wage in Gugulethu at the weekend.

Katy Scott

News | 11 November 2014

Farm worker activists acquitted

Four activists and farm workers, arrested two years ago while marching in the Koo valley outside Montagu, have been acquitted.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 10 November 2014

After hundreds of jobs lost, Free State promises to fix impassable road

Four years after a R100-million provincial government contract crashed in the Free State – driving a large civil engineering company into bankruptcy and rendering a major road impassable – the province has finally taken action to repair the disaster.

Barbara Maregele (with amaBhungane)

News | 7 November 2014

Marikana: World Bank loan undermines Lonmin’s arguments, says academic

During the hearings of the Marikana Commission, Lonmin executives said the company had not been able to afford to keep its 2006 promise to build 5,500 new houses for workers. Yet a year later, in 2007, the International Finance Corporation had made finance of US$150 million available to Lonmin - part of it for a "large-scale community development programme".

Alide Dasnois

News | 7 November 2014

Marikana: Lonmin’s broken promises

Lonmin has broken its promises to build housing for employees, say the Marikana Commission's evidence leaders.

Alide Dasnois

News | 5 November 2014

Making a living selling smileys

Nombulelo Mtibe eeks out a living selling smileys. And no, a smiley is not an emoticon on your phone!

Pharie Sefali

News | 3 November 2014

Putting bread - and chicken - on the table

Nosisa Bhomela is one of 12 Khayelitsha women who slaughter, pluck and clean chickens in exchange for chicken heads and feet to sell and take home for their meals.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 28 October 2014

Government Adjusts the Budget: Why it Matters for Service Delivery

The Adjustment Budget got very little coverage last week, but it is vital to understand it, explain Carlene van der Westhuizen and Thokozile Madonko.

Carlene van der Westhuizen and Thokozile Madonko

Analysis | 27 October 2014

Lonmin’s Bermuda Triangle

Platinum mining giant Lonmin could have found the money to meet rock drillers’ pay demands instead of shifting funds between subsidiaries, possibly to avoid tax.

GroundUp staff

News | 16 October 2014