The current wave of student protests in South Africa has been mostly analysed from a national and local perspective.
Achille Mbembe
Opinion | 13 November 2015
A gyrocopter overflying the embattled MSR Tormin mine near the remote West Coast town of Vredendal was shot at last month, according to a witness who reported the alleged incident to the local police.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 6 November 2015
If the court did not decide in favour of the gold miners in the silicosis case, hundreds of thousands of sick miners and their families would not be heard, advocates for the mineworkers told the Gauteng High Court yesterday.
Pete Lewis
News | 23 October 2015
Attempts by lawyers for mining giant Anglo American to play the race card in the silicosis case were rebuffed by the South Gauteng High Court yesterday.
Pete Lewis
News | 22 October 2015
Amidst the #FeesMustFall protests, a second #MustFall has emerged and has largely fallen under the radar: #ThePriceOfBreadMustFall. On Tuesday, a group of activists occupied the Shoprite in Khayelitsha Mall demanding lower food prices generally, and bread prices in particular.
Jane Battersby-Lennard
Analysis | 22 October 2015
A Philippi family is desperately looking for somewhere to keep their goats and sheep after being told they can no longer keep them in the area they have farmed for ten years.
Siyavuya Khaya
News | 20 October 2015
On Thursday, over 1,000 people attended a silent protest held by the Black Sash at St George's Cathedral, Cape Town. A similar protest was held at Mopanye Mall, Soweto, in which 120 people attended. There was also a picket, held with the Right2Know, on Tuesday outside the Mitchells Plain Sassa Office. The protests are part of the Black Sash and partners’ 'Hands off our grants' (HOOG) campaign.
Pasqua Heard
News | 15 October 2015
Loud reggae, pop and kwaito are some of the genres of music that compete with each other as you wander through the market at Cape Town central station taxi rank. Customers bustle through the rows of white container stalls, selling cheap snacks, fashionable clothing, haircuts and more. Among the many women entrepreneurs offering beauty services in the market is Odette Motema. She runs a hair and nail salon.
Text by Pasqua HeardPhotos by Juliette Garms
News | 13 October 2015
While the government earnestly pledges its commitment to reversing inequality, it reproduces inequality in the normal behaviour it expects for itself and the broader elite of South Africa’s political-economy. Two recent and very public events illustrate these opposing positions.
Jeff Rudin
Opinion | 13 October 2015
During Thomas Piketty’s Nelson Mandela lecture a friend tweeted that, despite the standing ovation, many would choose what to remember. They would parrot his call for investment in education because that was unthreatening. Forget land redistribution, a wealth tax and the national minimum wage, just get the kids in school!
Doron Isaacs
Opinion | 6 October 2015
Thomas Piketty, French economist and author of the bestselling Capital in the 21st Century, was due to arrive and deliver a lecture on inequality at UCT on Wednesday afternoon. He was prevented from flying (apparently for not having enough blank pages in his passport) and it was arranged that he would deliver the lecture virtually, via a live stream.
Ben Stanwix
Opinion | 30 September 2015
Hundreds of pensioners marched from the Company’s Garden to Parliament on Tuesday to demand a “decent living wage” of R5,000 from the current R1,410 state pension.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 30 September 2015
Mpho Mathebula rents a small space in a fruit and vegetable shop in Khayelitsha to sell his paintings and beadwork.
Pharie Sefali
News | 25 September 2015
The Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers union (Csaawu) announced today that it will not be forced to close down.
Barbara Maregele
Brief | 23 September 2015
Workers at Australian-owned Tormin mine on the west coast are still on strike after a protest two weeks ago in which a police officer and a worker were injured, and 27 people were arrested.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 23 September 2015
GroundUp photographer Masixole Feni tried to open an account at Jet stores last month - and found himself signed up for a handful of insurance policies he didn’t want.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 23 September 2015