Economy

Allegations of abuse in clothing factories

Workers in Kwazulu-Natal clothing factories have made allegations of abuse against factory owners in affidavits provided to GroundUp.

Issa Saunders

News | 13 February 2013

The poorest of the poor: The Karretjie Mense of the Great Karoo

In and around Colesberg, a small historical town on the N1 mid-way between Cape Town and Johannesburg, I met a group of impoverished sheep shearers living in abject poverty, surviving in tiny tin shacks on the verges of public roads. Only recently, in the last 15 years, have they become a settled, sedentary people.

Timothy Gabb

News | 6 February 2013

Renting out recycled bicycles

Eight years ago Bongani Ndlazi started collecting old bicycles and making them new again. He has turned his talent into a business that puts food on the table.

Nokubonga Yawa

News | 6 February 2013

Unions: getting back to first principles

Yesterday, exactly 40 years ago, the modern trade union movement arrived on the
South African scene. Its birth was heralded by a wave of strikes in Durban that had
gestated over 22 days from the time 2,000 workers at Coronation Brick and Tile
downed tools.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 5 February 2013

Tensions remain following dismissals of workers in De Doorns

Hundreds of farmworkers in the De Doorns area have been fired after the end of the farmworkers strike in the area on 22 January. The strike had been called off by COSATU the week before, but the seemingly dominant union in the area, the Bawsi Agriculture Workers Union of South Africa (Bawusa), suspended the strike days later. Clashes between police and protesters resulted in at least one death, many injuries and 181 arrests of striking farmworkers.

Ben Fogel

Opinion | 30 January 2013

Farm strikes: Radical changes needed

Farm workers began the centennial year of the 1913 Land Act with a continuation of the most militant industrial action in the sector in decades. On January 9th, various Western Cape farming towns were turned into warzones as protestors demanding an increase to a minimum R150 per day for farm workers, blockaded highways and set vineyards alight with police using rubber bullets and tear gas.

Niall Reddy

News | 24 January 2013

Cash Paymaster Services go on strike - company accused of racism

GroundUp journalist Mihle Pike received a call this morning that employees at Cash Paymaster Services had gone on strike. She went to see what was going on. Here is her account.

Mihle Pike

News | 23 January 2013

The Boland upheaval and failing the children of the poor

South Africa has continued to fail the children of the poor and is once again reaping
the results of that failure. Nowhere is this more evident than in the recurrent violent
eruptions in the fruit and wine farm regions of the Western Cape.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 16 January 2013

Allegations and counter-allegations in farm strike

With one man confirmed dead in De Doorns as well as further allegations of police brutality and coercion on the one hand and striker intimidation on the other, the ongoing farm worker protests continue in the Western Cape wine and fruit-growing region.

Kate Stegeman

News | 16 January 2013

Disgruntled employees at social grant payments company

Employees of Cash Paymasters Services (CPS) are fed up with their working conditions. The company handles the reissuing of the new social grant cards for the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).

Mihle Pike

News | 16 January 2013

Allegations and counter-allegations in farm strike

With one man confirmed dead in De Doorns as well as further allegations of police brutality and coercion on the one hand and striker intimidation on the other, the ongoing farm worker protests continue in the Western Cape wine and fruit-growing region.

Kate Stegeman

News | 16 January 2013

The Battle of De Doorns Round Three

Tensions between the De Doorns community and the police flared into open confrontation, as day one of the now thrice resumed strike turned into a running battle between striking workers and the police.

Ben Fogel

News | 10 January 2013

Khayelitsha entrepeneur spots a gap in the market

GroundUp spoke to Sipho Mfengwana, owner of Faku Tasty Chicken in Khayelitsha.

Mihle Pike

News | 12 December 2012

Young Mowbray fashion designer sells clothes on Facebook

Kayla Kim Meiring is the founder of Fro, a company that started off selling vintage clothing but now sells Meiring's own homespun popular clothes.

Margo Fortune and Nokubonga Yawa

News | 5 December 2012

Farm workers prepare for general strike

The Commercial Stevedoring Agricultural & Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) is preparing for a general strike from 4 December.

Tessa Gooding

Brief | 28 November 2012

Young entrepeneur delivers medicines in Khayelitsha

Sizwe Nzima is just 21 years old but he has already co-founded a business called Iyeza Express that delivers chronic medicines by bike to patients who are unable to stand in long queues at clinic pharmacies.

Mihle Pike

News | 21 November 2012