Alice Wamundiya comes from a background where the importance of education is emphasised. When she settled in South Africa after her family fled the Rwandan genocide, she decided to help other refugees and asylum-seekers with their education.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 15 December 2015
A Zimbabwean man, detained in the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp even though his passport allowed him to be in South Africa, has been released. GroundUp told his story on 25 November. He was released two days later.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 3 December 2015
At a press briefing at Parliament today, Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba released statistics on the Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP).
Tariro Washinyira
Brief | 25 November 2015
The Department of Home Affairs has introduced a Lesotho Special Permit. This will allow people from Lesotho currently staying in South Africa but who are undocumented or have incorrect or expired documents, to stay lawfully in the country.
Tariro Washinyira
Brief | 25 November 2015
On Thursday, the Constitutional Court will hear the matter between Minister of Home Affairs v Rahim and Others, concerning the detention of foreign nationals in places that are not designed as immigration detention facilities, such as police holding cells. The Legal Resource Centre (LRC) will appear on behalf of People against Suffering and Oppression (PASSOP).
Tariro Washinyira
News | 25 November 2015
Seeing how many unemployed young people there are in Imizamo Yethu informal settlement, Moustapha Fall, originally from Senegal, decided to teach them craft skills.
Bernard Chiguvare
News | 23 November 2015
Foreign nationals trading in Motherwell, Port Elizabeth, live in fear following a spike in robberies in recent months. The traders say they are being targeted by criminals who rob them of their goods and then sell the loot to locals at a heavily discounted price. Most robberies happen in daylight.
Joseph Chirume
News | 16 November 2015
Refugees and organisations working with them in the Western Cape say they were not informed with adequate time nor consulted by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) about the closure of its Bellville office for refugee travel and applications for identity documents.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 2 November 2015
About 100 people gathered in front of the Grahamstown City Hall to protest against the xenophobic violence that has hit the town and surrounding townships for more than a week.
By Hancu Louw
News | 30 October 2015
In the blistering hot conference room of the Masifunde Education and Development Project Trust, 14 women with determined calm put together a statement: 'The police have told us that we must not go ahead with our planned protest at the City Hall on Friday as they cannot guarantee our safety. We cannot and will not back down'. The Voices of the Foreigner’s Wives represent a large number of women still too afraid to leave their homes after the spate of xenophobic violence that shook Grahamstown a week ago.
Hancu Louw
News | 29 October 2015
On Monday, panicked applicants who had not yet received their Zimbabwean Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) started queuing outside the ABSA building in central Cape Town for help.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 8 October 2015
Virginia Sibanda, like thousands of youth across South Africa in November 2014, was hunched over a desk, pen in hand, taking her matric exams. Her years of accumulated academic trophies and certificates culminated in these papers. She had attended tutoring sessions, practiced the past exams, and had applied to universities to pursue her dream of studying medicine.
Sarita Pillay
Feature | 1 October 2015
When Flavina walks the streets of Delft, with her long earrings, nose piercing and colourful clothes, people turn around to stare. Tall, elegant and feminine, Flavina used to be Flavier. Born as a male in Burundi 33 years ago, she came to South Africa to live openly as a woman.
Juliette Garms
News | 22 September 2015
Zimbabweans living in South Africa are feeling the pinch of the steep fall of the rand against the US dollar. Because they are earning rands, they are able to send less money home.
Bernard Chiguvare
News | 14 September 2015
Fanuel (not his real name) teaches at a high school in Gaetsewe District in Northern Cape Province. He says he was last paid in June 2015 because his Zimbabwe Special Permit (ZSP) renewal application to the Department of Home Affairs is still pending. He appears to be one of dozens of foreign nationals in a similar position.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 11 September 2015
Saeed Furaa arrived in South Africa in 1998 after fleeing Somalia where he had worked as a shepherd. Against the backdrop of xenophobic violence in April, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said that foreigners needed to share their business practices with local business owners. Yet this is exactly what Furaa and other Somalis have been doing.
Yumna Mohamed
News | 7 September 2015