Society

High ranking SAPS officers to appear before the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into policing

Public hearings of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into allegations of police inefficiency and a breakdown in relations between the community and the police restarted on 17 March with a number of high ranking SAPS officers in attendance.

Adam Armstrong

News | 18 March 2014

Attitudes to pets have changed significantly in recent years in Khayelitsha

Started by a community member 17 years ago, Mdzananda Animal Clinic in Khayelitsha now treats up to 1,000 animals a month.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 17 March 2014

Struggling Zimbabwean author writes about the challenges of living and dying on the Cape Flats

39-year-old Zimbabwean Milton Jaure, also known as Rasmijah, is struggling to get financial support to publish his book of short stories and produce a documentary focusing on the challenges foreigners face when their loved ones die in South Africa.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 17 March 2014

Religious leaders ask their congregations to do more than pray for an end to gang violence on the Cape Flats

On 14 March, Imam Rashied Omar, chairperson of the Western Cape Religious Leaders Forum (WCRLF), hosted Manenberg community leaders at the Claremont Main Road mosque, where he officiates.

Yazeed Kamaldien

News | 17 March 2014

Rape ““ not just a township problem

During the Khayelitsha Commission, community witnesses, academics and police officers related stories of appalling violence, particularly sexual violence. The picture painted is in danger of creating the impression that Khayelitsha is bad, that something is wrong with the community, that it is unsalvageable.

Adam Armstrong

Opinion | 14 March 2014

Manenberg gets bullet-proof schools

Gang violence in Manenberg is not decreasing, despite efforts from schools, government departments, and community organisations.

Fergus Turner

News | 12 March 2014

Former gang member calls for the army to pacify the Cape Flats “civil war”

Former gang member Mervin Lewis says what is happening in Mitchells Plain, Manenberg, Nyanga, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu is not a gang fight, but a low intensity civil war.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 12 March 2014

Cry the beloved Congo

Mpho Mabhena writes about her distressing experience of the plight of women in the Congo.

Mpho Mabhena

Opinion | 12 March 2014

My grandchild can’t read or write

A pensioner who only had two years of schooling taught himself to read and write, while his grandson, who has reached grade 9, can’t read.

Selby Nomnganga

News | 11 March 2014

Passengers claim that Golden Arrow buses are not safe

One night in February on her way home from work, Bulelwa Thoza was stabbed and robbed inside a Golden Arrow bus by an unidentified gang member.

Pharie Sefali

News | 11 March 2014

Are sugar daddies bad for your health?

“Sugar daddies destroy lives” say billboard adverts in Kwazulu-Natal in big bold black and red letters. The same message is echoed in radio adverts played across the country.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 11 March 2014

Protest at Cape Town Pride

Not everyone in Cape Town celebrated Gay Pride in the same spirit.

Pharie Sefali

News | 10 March 2014

Sex workers demand recognition and march to Parliament

Sex workers and sex worker advocates in Durban, Polokwane, Cape Town and Johannesburg took to the streets on Monday to honour International Sex Worker Rights’ Day. Similar marches were held in cities and towns all over the world. The protesters were calling attention to the human rights abuses suffered by sex workers and demanded legal recognition of sex work as a form of employment.

Marlise Richter

News | 4 March 2014

The Khayelitsha Commission takes a break

On Friday 21 February, the first round of public sittings of the Khayelitsha Commission came to an end. There will be no public sittings until 17 March, when senior SAPS officers will continue to give testimony.

Adam Armstrong

News | 3 March 2014

Uganda’s apartheid-style atrocity deserves sanctions

The leaders who spoke of an African renaissance and who brought about the African Union ignored gay rights. We are seeing the consequences of their omission today.

Leon Linz

Opinion | 3 March 2014

Manenberg community taking back their streets

Manenberg is a township in the Cape Flats outside Gugulethu. The apartheid government originally created it to relocate Coloured families who had been forcibly removed from their homes. Today it often makes the news because of gang violence.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 28 February 2014