Human Rights

Students demand an end to unequal education

ā€œIn my school we have two main problems. The first one is a lack of water. Our taps are not working properly,ā€ said Phila Biyongo, a grade 9 student at Simanyene High School in Strand, as she marched through Cape Town city centre yesterday afternoon in a protest organised by Equal Education.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 1 November 2014

Pregnant girls must be allowed in class

In my school when a girl falls pregnant, her parents are called in and the girl is kicked out of classes. She is only allowed to return after she gives birth.

Sisipho Xhaxha

Opinion | 30 October 2014

After decades in Walmer Estate, residents face eviction

Sixteen shack-dwellers, including four children, will be left homeless when the sheriff enforces an eviction order in Walmer Estate this week.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 29 October 2014

Police: the facts behind the Commissioner’s “good story”

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Policing should ask police management some tough questions, writes Zackie Achmat in the second in a series of articles on policing.

Zackie Achmat

Opinion | 24 October 2014

Residents march for essential services

The City of Cape Town has been given 14 working days to respond to a memorandum of demands from the residents of Marikana, Rolihlahla Park and Klipfontein informal settlements.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 24 October 2014

Joe Slovo housing spat continues

Joe Slovo residents have accused Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela of changing the criteria for housing allocation at the last minute in order to deny them access to new houses. But Madikizela says even ā€œapprovedā€ subsidy beneficiaries should not expect automatic allocation of houses.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 23 October 2014

Social audits and the right to sanitation

Social audits are a valuable tool in implementing socio-economic rights, which is why the response by the City of Cape Town to the social audit of janitorial services in Khayelitsha is disturbing, writes Sandra Liebenberg.

Sandra Liebenberg

Opinion | 22 October 2014

Ebola: Journey to a quarantined village

In her latest article from the frontline of the Ebola epidemic, Kathryn Stinson ​looks for answers in a quarantined village in Sierra Leone.

Kathryn Stinson

Opinion | 21 October 2014

Lwandle residents to SANRAL: where are our possessions?

Lwandle residents who have been rehoused after being evicted from SA National Roads Agency land in June complain that their possessions have been lost or damaged.

Pharie Sefali

News | 21 October 2014

Getting health care to sex workers in Cape Town

Leigh Davids was born a boy, but when she was five, she realised she wanted to be a girl.

Katy Scott and GroundUp Staff

News | 20 October 2014

Tackling rape in Khayelitsha

Between two and three rapes are reported every day to a single centre in Khayelitsha. And the numbers will probably rise at the end of the year.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 20 October 2014

Week in activism

This week we look at Greenpeace’s call on government to make Eskom comply with pollution laws, a report prepared for Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and a call for the Department of Home Affairs to recognise transgender rights.

Thembela Ntongana

News | 17 October 2014

Marking “Black Wednesday”: how to ensure media freedom

Sunday October 19 marks the commemoration of ā€˜Black Wednesday’, the day in 1977 that the apartheid government banned a range of publications sympathetic to the Black Consciousness Movement, and arrested a group of journalists and editors.

Mark Weinberg

Opinion | 17 October 2014

Hangberg residents demonstrate outside court

Hangberg residents demonstrated at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday in support of Santonio Jonkers who made his second appearance in court.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 17 October 2014

Hunger: half of SA at risk

One in four South Africans suffers from hunger on a regular basis, according to an Oxfam report released ahead of World Food Day, October 16.

Joyce Xi

News | 16 October 2014

Responding rationally to Ebola

Tightening border controls is not the way to prevent an outbreak of Ebola in South Africa, writes Nathan Geffen.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 16 October 2014