Women who beat the odds and other stories

Featured stories

Wine farm eviction leaves family homeless

News: When eight-year-old Jessica Jordaan returned home from De Villiers Primary yesterday afternoon, a pile of bricks lay in place of the house where she had lived all her life.

Daneel Knoetze

New toilets for Khayelitsha creche

News: It\xe2\x80\x99s an hour before snack time at the Sophumelela Day Care centre in Site C, Khayelitsha, and one of the toddlers has indicated to his teacher that he needs to use the toilet.

Barbara Maregele

Original District 6 families face eviction

On Searle Street, six semi-detached Victorian cottages house a handful of families not forcibly removed from District 6 during apartheid. Now, as the cottages go on sale, the tenants face imminent eviction.

Daneel Knoetze

From backyard to Rolihlahla Park

News: Nosiphiwo Lali built her shack in Rolihlahla Park in Philippi East three weeks ago. She is one of hundreds of people who have moved out of backyards into the Philippi area recently, in spite of the eviction of families in neighbouring Marikana settlement.

Johnnie Isaac

Articles

Confusion over Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit

News: Some holders of Zimbabwe Dispensation Permits that expire in 2015 do not understand that all permits are expiring on 31 December 2014, and that they too need to make an online application by 1 October 2014 for the new Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP).

Tariro Washinyira

City plans to sell off a string of properties

News: The City of Cape Town has announced it intends to sell off 65 municipal properties prompting a backlash from the hosts of a recent symposium on the Urban Land Question.

Daneel Knoetze

Delft teenager determined on success

News: \xe2\x80\x9cSome gangsters in my community have their reasons to be in gangs. I understand where they are coming from, but I choose to be different,\xe2\x80\x9d says Sibabalwe Mpetha.

Pharie Sefali

Daylight robbery at Nyanga school

News: On 20 August at Walter Teka Primary School in Nyanga, an official from the Department of Education in Western Cape became a victim of a crime while he visited the school on official duties. The incident occurred in front of schoolchildren.

Johnnie Isaac

Weekend crime sweep in Delft

News: Bad street lighting, poor numbering of streets and bushes affect policing in Delft, according to Brigadier Hendrik Jansen, who is the Acting Cluster Commander.

Johnnie Isaac

Cosatu holds conference on crime

News: On 22 August in the Cape Town City Hall, Cosatu convened an anti-crime conference in response to desperate pleas from communities asking for a more effective response to crime.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

I am a sex worker …

News: Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) has staged a photo exhibition at its head office in Observatory, Cape Town, aimed at the ignorance and prejudice that comes with being labelled a sex worker.

Simbonile Mkwambi

Gay and not free in South Africa

News: A gay man from the DRC claims the Congolese community in South Africa will not rest until they kill him. Junior Miteo Kalonji, 34, wept hard as he talked about his life. GroundUp had to stop the interview three times when he broke down.

Tariro Washinyira

Silver lining for evicted farm tenants

News: There is a glimmer of hope for Andries Joostenberg and his family who, earlier this month, were evicted from the farm where they have lived for 50 years. As they near the prospect of becoming homeless again, a Stellenbosch attorney, Johan van der Merwe, has agreed to appeal the eviction order which put the family out on the street.

Daneel Knoetze

Special feature: Women who beat the odds

Women who beat the odds: Langa\xe2\x80\x99s Nomzamo Mbete

Special Feature: 72-year-old Nomzamo Mbete is determined to do her bit to help young township girls through dance.

Pharie Sefali

Women who beat the odds: Khayelitsha\xe2\x80\x99s Nokuthula Sibaba

Special Feature: Thanks to a successful woman, people in Khayelitsha don\xe2\x80\x99t have to go to a mall to buy pizza - they can go to a pizza stand in Litha Park.

Pharie Sefali

Women who beat the odds: Lydia Ntonga

Special Feature: Lydia Ntonga, 25, will not allow the loss of her eyesight to hold her back. With courage and help from Cape Town Society for the Blind and The League of Friends of the Blind she is determined to get what she wants from life.

Tariro Washinyira

Women who beat the odds: Masiphumelele\xe2\x80\x99s Kwa aunty

Special Feature: If you live in Masiphumelele you will know Nongoloza\xe2\x80\x99s Braai Place, or Kwa aunty, as some call it. You probably know the owner and she probably knows you too by name.

Zintle Swana

Angy Peter trial

Angy Peter case frustrated by sick detective constable

News: Whispers of disbelief and frustration broke the silence in the courtroom as Judge Robert Henney announced that detective constable Stanford Muthian had called in sick for the second time in the last week. Muthian of Mfuleni police station headed the investigation into the kidnapping and murder of Rowan du Preez.

Barbara Maregele

Crucial evidence missing from police docket

News: The handwritten notes made by the three police officers who claim they recorded Rowan du Preez\xe2\x80\x99s dying declaration \xe2\x80\x9cwere nowhere to be found\xe2\x80\x9d in the investigating docket.

Barbara Maregele

Angy Peter case: defence questions police docket

News: Defence attorney William King has questioned the authenticity of the police docket handed to the court in the trial of Angy Peter and others.

Barbara Maregele

Peter trial: Constable\xe2\x80\x99s competence called into question

News: Defence attorney William King expressed concern yesterday at the lack of memory and of competency of the detective constable who led investigations into the kidnapping and murder of Rowan du Preez.

Barbara Maregele

Photo story

Amakrwala

Photo story: Young Xhosa men are welcomed back by the community after spending a month undergoing initiation and circumcision in the open veld in Philippi. It was on a Friday and mostly older brothers and young children cheered on the three young men at New crossroads, Nyanga. The women waited patiently at the family home, preparing food and peeling vegetables, while the elders chatted and drank African beer waiting to share words of wisdom with the new men. Photos by Masixole Feni and Hugo Bobeheman. Click on any image to start slide show.

Masixole Feni and Hugo Bobeheman

Opinion

Do big electronic dance music festivals spread the love?

Opinion: From Miami\xe2\x80\x99s supercharged Ultra Music festival to Rocking the Daisies, Cape Town has become home to some of the highest grossing music festivals in the country. Our music journalist, Zethu Gqola, takes a look at how, if at all, four of the biggest festivals have benefitted struggling communities in and around Cape Town.

Zethu Gqola

Sex work, crime & the working class

Opinion: All who sell their labour in order to survive are workers. And all workers are, to one or other degree, exploited in that they are paid less than the final value of the work they do. Within a profit-driven system it could hardly be otherwise.

Terry Bell

Activist Beat

The week in activism

Activist Beat: In this week in activism, the massacre at Lonmin mine is remembered two years on, relief in the courts for people removed from Saratoga Avenue by the City of Johannesburg, and anticipation mounts ahead of the release of the report by the commission into policing in Khayelitsha.

Thembela Ntongana