Imizamo Yethu residents brace for cold winds and heavy rains

Richard Ngcongolo is one of thousands of informal settlement residents across Cape Town whose homes are left waterlogged by heavy rainfall during the winter months. Ngcongolo, a resident of Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, huddles around a small paraffin heater while three large plastic buckets fill with water dripping through the roof of his two-room shack.

Barbara Maregele

News | 3 June 2015

Battling to be accepted in South Africa

Being accepted in South Africa is hard for foreigners, say Ethiopians living in Cape Town.

Christine Ayela

News | 2 June 2015

Urgent need to decriminalise sex work

If sex work was accepted as legitimate and legalised, much of the violence and abuse that sex workers face would be eliminated.

Savannah Russo. Photographs by Eric Miller.

Opinion | 2 June 2015

Philippi: What’s behind the violence?

Philippi has been struck by violence this past week. At least three people have died, including 68-year-old Karel Dilgee who was struck by a stone while driving. There have also been five attempted murders and two houses destroyed by fire. Several cars and at least one Golden Arrow bus have been set alight. Ten people have been arrested, charged with public violence. Residents from neighbouring areas, Marikana and Lower Crossroads, have been fighting with each other. What is causing the violence between these communities?

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and GroundUp Staff

News | 1 June 2015

Activists to Mthethwa: “Who gave you the right to kill a sex worker?”

On Monday the murder trial of renowned artist Zwelethu Mthethwa was postponed again in the Western Cape High Court. Mthethwa is accused of murdering Nokuphila Kumalo, 23, who was a sex worker in Woodstock, on 14 April 2013.

Ashleigh Furlong

News | 1 June 2015

Women and addiction: a much neglected problem

Mother’s Day has come and gone with the usual emphasis on happy mothers, loving families and children bringing breakfast in bed to their moms. For many this picture is a good reflection of what happens at home. But for some mothers this picture is far from accurate.

Adrienne Dodds

Opinion | 1 June 2015

An old lesson to which all should pay heed

“No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent.” So wrote the English poet, John Donne although, for continent he meant planet. Today, this is something that can be applied equally to a village, town, country or continent. Just as it can be to a trade union, business or employer organisation.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 1 June 2015

UCT and transformation

In April and May 2015 we published a five-part series on UCT and transformation:

By

Feature | 1 June 2015

City spends hundreds of millions of rand on informal settlement sanitation: a response to the SJC

The latest in a string of articles by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), disseminating inaccurate and misleading information, further warps the facts and the realities within which the City of Cape Town must operate. But then, the SJC never let the facts get in the way of the pretty graphics that they have begun to share widely with such gusto.

Ernest Sonnenberg

Opinion | 29 May 2015

Residents clash in Philippi

Violence has erupted between residents of Lower Crossroads and the Marikana settlement in Philippi East. Today police shot rubber bullets and stun grenades at a group of protesters from Lower Crossroads apparently to prevent them attacking Marikana.

Nombulelo Damba

News | 29 May 2015

Marikana: Commuter killed and councillor’s house burnt down

Protests over service delivery for the Marikana informal settlement in Philippi East have turned violent. An ANC ward councillor’s house was set alight earlier today, allegedly by protesters from Marikana. Police have also opened a case of murder after a man died on the way to hospital after his car was stoned.

Nombulelo Damba

News | 28 May 2015

City chooses not to invest in informal settlements

The City of Cape Town says infrastructure for water and sanitation cannot be installed in 82% of informal settlements because the land is not suitable. Yet the City’s own data tells a different story, writes Dustin Kramer.

Dustin Kramer

Opinion | 28 May 2015

“Not enough money allocated to sanitation,” say SJC protesters

Yesterday, about 150 members of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) marched to the civic centre. They demanded “a detailed account” of hundreds of submissions to the City of Cape Town on the 2015/16 budget.

Bernard Chiguvare

Brief | 28 May 2015

Blikkiesdorp residents accuse ACSA and City of deciding their future without them

It has taken eight months for the residents of Blikkiesdorp to be given access to an agreement between the City of Cape Town and Airports Company South Africa (ACSA). The agreement outlines ACSA’s plans to purchase the land on which the Blikkiesdorp residents are currently residing and rehouse them.

Ashleigh Furlong

News | 28 May 2015

Start HIV treatment sooner, study shows

It’s important to start treating people with HIV sooner rather than later, according to the findings of a large clinical study which could change treatment in many countries including South Africa.

Nathan Geffen

News | 27 May 2015