Human Rights

Call for deregistration of Jewish students receives uncompromising response from vice-chancellor

In a strongly worded response to a memorandum received from the Student Representative Council (SRC) and the Progressive Youth Alliance at the Durban University of Technology, vice-chancellor Ahmed Bawa has written that it is "outrageous, preposterous and a deep violation of our National Constitution and every human rights principle" for these organisations to have demanded the deregistration of Jewish students.

GroundUp Staff

Brief | 11 February 2015

Flamingo Crescent upgrade shows what can be done

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

Curro schools and segregation: back to the future

Today, Equal Education is protesting outside the Public Investment Corporation because it is an investor in the Curro private school chain. DORON ISAACS, Equal Education's Deputy General Secretary, explains his organisation's concerns with Curro.

Doron Isaacs

Opinion | 10 February 2015

Gugulethu’s free paralegal advice centre under threat of closure

The Gugulethu Paralegal Advice Office in Gugulethu will soon be forced to close down if staff are unable to secure funding by April this year.

Barbara Maregele

News | 9 February 2015

How xenophobic violence turned Joseph Tau’s life upside down

“I heard a loud noise from the looters outside the supermarket,” recalls 76-year-old Joseph Tau. “I could hear footsteps on the roof and knew they were coming for us."

Mosa Damane

News | 4 February 2015

Sisulu drafting amendments to eviction laws

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

Most Mfuleni tent children back at school

Arrangements have been made to accommodate most of the Mfuleni learners who were using a tent as a school, according to the Western Cape Department of Education.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 4 February 2015

No room for learners: parents start school in tent

Hundreds of learners are using a tent in Mfuleni’s Bardale neighbourhood as a school after parents say they were turned away from primary and high schools in the area which are full.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Feature | 29 January 2015

Draft drone rules silent on privacy and weapon concerns

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

Delays with Home Affairs permits: Zimbabweans sent away from work

Three Zimbabwean men whose permits are pending have been told to leave their jobs at Touareg Tents in Capricorn Business Park and return only when they can prove they are legally in the country.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 27 January 2015

Constitutional rights apply to sex workers too

A year ago, some boys in my street came home late at night with a sex worker. They refused to pay her.

Abigail McDougall

Opinion | 22 January 2015

“Silence must not be allowed to win”

Today GroundUp publishes this image in solidarity with journalists all over the world following the attack in Paris on ​the staff of ​Charlie Hebdo, in which ten journalists and two police officers were killed.

GroundUp Staff

News | 7 January 2015

Farewell to a lovable revolutionary

Sadie Forman (1929-2014) one of the most unconventional, interesting and lovable fighters in the South African anti-apartheid movement, died on the morning of 11 December, aged 85. She spent the last years of her life with her daughter, Sara, in Lewes, in the East Sussex county of England. Her funeral will be held on 23 December.

Terry Bell

News | 19 December 2014

Hope Street carpenter shut down

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

No sign of Zuma’s sanitary towels

In 2011, President Jacob Zuma made promises about the provision of sanitary towels to poor women. Three years later, GroundUp tried to find out whether these promises have been kept.

Pharie Sefali

News | 17 December 2014

R3.30 an hour: De Doorns child labour probed

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