Township beauty pageants are extremely popular. On Saturday Sexee Simplicities ran a pageant in Du Noon. But are these competitions sexist and demeaning or do they actually empower women?
Mihle Pike and GroundUp staff
News | 5 December 2012
Right2Know held a candlelight vigil outside Parliament on 22 November in protest against the Protection of State Information Bill.
Kate Stegeman and GroundUp Staff
Brief | 28 November 2012
If you are arrested in South Africa, even if you are innocent, expect to spend months and maybe years in prison before being released. The law says that if you are arrested you should appear before a court within 48 hours or be released. The courts have also ruled that bail hearings are urgent. Yet the police, prosecutors, magistrates and judges often ignore these rights.
Mary-Jane Matsolo
News | 28 November 2012
There is only one thing in this world that infuriates me and that is the abuse of women. I can't stand it. The thought of it unleashes this rage within that makes me want to scream and destroy every man that has ever laid a hand on a woman.
Baldi Lox
Opinion | 28 November 2012
An argument between a farmer and two employees has spiralled out of control. The story shows the kinds of problems fuelling the current farm tensions in the Western Cape.
Tessa Gooding and Margo Fortune
News | 21 November 2012
Seventy employees at Leeuwenkuil Farm refused to work for five days until five of their colleagues were reinstated, according to the Commerical Stevedoring Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU).
Tessa Gooding
News | 21 November 2012
Millions of South Africans at the end of apartheid dreamed of living in a house one day. This was the hope offered by the Reconstruction and Development Programme. Eighteen years later there has been progress. The Department of Housing says that over 3 million houses have been built sheltering over 13 million people. But there is a terribly long way to go.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
Feature | 21 November 2012
Its fine wines are known around the world and the City Sightseeing bus takes regular journeys through its beautiful grounds beneath Table Mountain. But the community who live and work at Groot Constantia estate say that the charitable trust that owns the farm pays female vineyard workers less than their male counterparts. They also accuse management of reducing their benefits.
Tessa Gooding
News | 14 November 2012
There are two Commissions of Inquiry underway in South Africa (SA) that involve the SA Police Service (SAPS), the Police Minister and Police Commissioner, that we should be interrogating, examining, monitoring, overseeing and following with equal vigour.
Fatima Hassan
Opinion | 14 November 2012
On 22 August, in response to a call made in November 2011 from several social justice organisations, Premier Helen Zille established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged police inefficiency and a breakdown in relations between police and communities in Khayelitsha. The commission is being chaired by former Constitutional Court judge, Kate O'Regan and Advocate Vusi Pikoli.
Tessa Gooding
News | 7 November 2012
Our lead story today is that local business organisations are mobilising against Somali shops in Khayelitsha.
GroundUp Editor
News | 7 November 2012
Over a hundred community members marched to Lingelethu Police Station in Khayelitsha on Friday demanding a greater police presence in high-crime areas in the township.
Nokubonga Yawa
News | 5 November 2012
Baphumelele Children's Home is a home for children who are orphaned, abandoned, abused or neglected. It is located in Khayelitsha's Site B, Z section.
Nokubonga Yawa
News | 17 October 2012
A soup kitchen serving poor people in Somerset West struggles to stay open following pressure for it to relocate from the ward councillor and a business woman.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 17 October 2012
The Constitutional Court is proving that there is life after Chaskalson, Langa, O’Regan and Ngcobo. Many feared that new Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng would usher in an era of slavish Executive-mindedness – and that may still come true – but recent judgments of the Court are quite the opposite.
Doron Isaacs
Opinion | 10 October 2012
Sbu Jakavula is 14 years old. He lives in Du Noon township. He does not go to school. Instead he sells furniture from an informal stand.
Nokubonga Yawa
News | 3 October 2012