Human Rights

Mother of four battles to survive

HIV-positive Zuziwe* from Nyanga is worried about how she is going to survive this winter because she says she doesn’t have enough food or blankets for her children.

Pharie Sefali

News | 1 July 2014

War resisters across Africa headed for Cape Town

From 4 to 8 July, Cape Town will host the first ever War Resisters International Conference to be held in Africa. The Pan-African conference will bring together representatives of grassroots movements from over 25 African countries.

Shireen Mukadam

News | 27 June 2014

The plight of informal street traders

Last week, GroundUp witnessed law enforcement officers confiscating the fruit of two street vendors on the corners of Belmont and Main Road, Rondebosch. They are among thousands of informal vendors breaking city bylaws to sell their goods at traffic lights and intersections across the City in order to make their daily living.

Barbara Maregele and Adam Armstrong

News | 26 June 2014

Babies found abandoned in Khayelitsha

Residents of Site B in Khayelitsha were shocked and angered after the body of a baby was found in a toilet last week. The tiny body lay between pieces of paper inside the bucket system toilet.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 26 June 2014

A week in political activism

This week we cover the imprisonment of Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt, demands for a regional seminar about gender-based discrimination, anti-xenophobia efforts in De Doorns, and environmental research in Mpumalanga.

Michelle Korte

News | 25 June 2014

Minister Ramathlodi: more of the same, or the same, just more?

In the mining villages of Ga-Pila where Anglo Platinum continues to profit from land grabbed from the traditional communities just west of Mokopane, the appointment of the new Minister of Mineral Resources, Advocate Ngoako Ramathlodi, has been met with a sense of betrayal.

Christopher Rutledge

Opinion | 16 June 2014

Youth Day: Struggle for equal education continues

Nearly 40 years ago on 16 June 1976, there was a youth uprising in Soweto. This was evoked by the learners at the time who did not want to be taught in Afrikaans. Their struggle was against an inferior education system that was setting them up for failure.

Sizwe Zubenathi Mapapu

Opinion | 16 June 2014

Unanswered questions about Strand evictions

Ten days after several hundred people were evicted from the Nomzamo (Lwandle) informal settlement near Strand, there is still no clarity about why they were removed.

GroundUp Staff

News | 11 June 2014

Defence asks for discharge in Peter trial

The State has not proved “beyond reasonable doubt” that Social Justice Coalition activist Angy Peter and her co-accused are responsible for the assault and murder of Rowan Du Preez, the defence argued in the Cape High court yesterday.

Barbara Maregele

News | 10 June 2014

Miserable day for people who lost homes, but baby rumoured to be dead is alive

It’s cold and raining in Cape Town tonight. Ice particles formed on the ground outside the Nomzamo Community Hall in Strand where hundreds of residents, whose homes were demolished over the last two days, are sheltering.

Pharie Sefali and GroundUp staff

News | 4 June 2014

Videos from Strand demolitions

Here are two short video clips from the demolitions of people's homes that took place in Strand yesterday.

Adam Armstrong

News | 4 June 2014

Fix our healthcare system so that we may live!

Access to the Constitution and constitutional education in isiXhosa is not an an added extra—it is a constitutional right, argue Tim Hodgson and Mluleki Marongo.

Tim Hodgson and Mluleki Marongo

Opinion | 4 June 2014

Accusations fly as Strand homes demolished

“The law is the law” said a spokesman for the South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL) yesterday as hundreds were left homeless in the rain after the demolition of their shacks on SANRAL-owned land near Strand.

Barbara Maregele and Adam Armstrong

Feature | 4 June 2014

Community desperate as their homes are demolished

Hundreds of people were left homeless at Nomzamo settlement in Strand on Tuesday. Shacks were smashed down while their owners watched.

Pharie Sefali and Adam Armstrong

News | 4 June 2014

Water

For many Cape Town residents, getting clean water is a daily effort. And in some parts of the city, polluted canals run alongside people's houses.

Masixole Feni

News | 3 June 2014

Water

For many Cape Town residents, getting clean water is a daily effort. And in some parts of the city, polluted canals run alongside people's houses.

Masixole Feni

News | 3 June 2014