Local government

Can Khayelitsha be policed?

The Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry has entered its third week. Its aim is to investigate the allegations that SAPS have been inefficient in their policing of Khayelitsha and that there has been a breakdown in police-community relations.

Adam Armstrong

Opinion | 3 February 2014

When a police van hit and killed our child

This is a shortened transcript of a witness testimony given at the Khayelitsha Commission last week.

Transcript from Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry

News | 3 February 2014

Lawyer to Home Affairs: treatment of asylum seekers is irresponsible, hard-hearted, incompetent

Hundreds of asylum seekers who have been living in Cape Town for more than five years and have renewed their documents more than twelve times are now undocumented. They may lose their work. They no longer have access to health, education, and bank accounts. And they are vulnerable to arrest, detention and deportation.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 29 January 2014

Commissioner klaps SAPS for inefficiency

At the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, the morning got off to a rocky start for the SAPS legal counsel with Chairperson Justice Kate O’Regan again verbally reprimanding them.

Adam Armstrong

News | 27 January 2014

Mshengu toilets down again

Mshengu’s blue chemical toilets have once again toppled over in Khayelitsha’s BM Section causing residents to defecate in the bushes.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 15 January 2014

Labour Department fails to follow up on sick workers’ claims

On 13 November 2013, GroundUp reported that Cassiem Mahommed has been waiting for over six years for compensation from the City of Cape Town for asbestosis. The Department of Labour immediately contacted GroundUp after publication and promised to follow up with Mahommed Disturbingly, there has been no progress on the matter.

Jonathan Dockney

News | 14 January 2014

Improvement in Khayelitsha street lights

On the evening of 2 December 2013, Groundup staff visited Lansdowne Road in Khayelitsha to assess the state of street lights in the area. We counted 29 lights that were not functional. Overall, it appears that the state of street lights has improved since our last report on the issue in August 2013.

Jonathan Dockney

News | 11 December 2013

Drought and debt for Northern Cape small farmers

In the middle of a drought, small scale subsistence farmers on the outskirts of Paballelo in the Northern Cape are facing a bill of R1.3 million for water.

Selby Nomnganga

News | 5 December 2013

Young artists say no support from local government

GroundUp met with a group of young hip-hop and spaza music makers. The group complain that they have been at it for three years, but don’t get any support from local businesses and government.

Pharie Sefali

News | 4 December 2013

“We’ve lost hope in our government”

Several houses in Gugulethu were damaged by the heavy rainfall this weekend. Hombazi Fiphaza, a resident from Kanana Square informal settlement, said, “We go through the same thing everytime there is heavy rainfall … What pains me the most is watching the children suffer because of it, and there is nothing you can do to protect them from it.”

Nwabisa Pondoyi

News | 21 November 2013

No-show in RR Section by Disaster Management after flooding?

“When we called Disaster Risk Management on Saturday, they sent one man … He said he would be back in a couple of hours, with provisions for a hundred people, including sand bags and stones to protect houses from further water damage, as well as food. They never came back,” says Luthando Tokota a community advocate with the Social Justice Coalition.

Delphine Pedeboy

News | 20 November 2013

Dozens of unpaid asbestosis claims leave sick workers unsupported for years

Cassiem Mohammed is a 70-year-old retired boiler cleaner from the now-closed Athlone Power Station (APS). He was diagnosed with asbestosis (fibrosis of the lung) in the mid-1990s from exposure to asbestos while he was working at the APS.

Jonathan Dockney

News | 13 November 2013

Striking parking attendants allege they have not been paid since 2009

Rene Mayinga from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is on strike. He claims his employer, Street Parking Solution (SPS), which won a tender in July 2008 from the City of Cape Town to collect parking fees in the CBD, has not been paying him since 2009.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 21 October 2013

SJC activists arrested during protest outside Mayor’s office

Several Social Justice Coalition (SJC) members who chained themselves to railings at the Civic Centre in Cape Town this morning vowing they would not budge until Mayor Patricia de Lille addressed them, were arrested and held at Caledon Square Police Station. They have not yet been charged.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 11 September 2013

No tap and one toilet

A fed-up Khayelitsha resident is anxious to know why the City of Cape Town is not making any provision for water and sanitation on her street.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 28 August 2013

Follow-up on Khayelitsha streetlights

In February, GroundUp published a report on the issue of street lights in Khayelitsha, in particular on Lansdowne Road and Mew Way. Activist organizations -- the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Equal Education (EE) -- held a march on 4 February in Khayelitsha.

Thandile Majivolo

News | 22 August 2013