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GroundUp

Social housing at Salt River Market takes one step forward

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Heritage body gives the go-ahead for the planned development, but funding is uncertain and informal settlement residents still need to be relocated

The development of social housing at Cape Town’s historic Salt River Market is a step closer to fruition after a required Heritage Impact Assessment was approved earlier this month.… Read more

Silent Sea Point march for Gaza

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Israel has blocked food from entering Gaza and killed more than 200 people at distribution points

By Matthew Hirsch

Several hundred people, mostly women, walked in silence along the Sea Point promenade on Saturday to show solidarity with people in Gaza.… Read more

Police torture in Mowbray – case document goes missing

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Lawyers are reprimanded by magistrate

By Mary-Anne Gontsana/GroundUp

One of the three police officers on trial for assaulting a man during a raid at a Mowbray barbershop in 2023 intends to plead guilty to the charge of torture. However, proceedings could not continue at the Wynberg Regional Court on Thursday because the officer’s plea proposal had gone missing.… Read more

Mayor gives green light to controversial Bo-Kaap hotel

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“Consensus” reached after exhaustive engagement process, says Geordin Hill-Lewis

Construction of a hotel on a vacant plot in the Bo-Kaap in Cape Town is to go ahead, but it will be three storeys lower than the original plan.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has confirmed the decision by the City of Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Tribunal to approve the development on Buitengracht Street.… Read more

Tafelberg housing plan revealed

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Western Cape Government plans combination of social, affordable, and high-end housing units

The Western Cape Provincial Government has revealed its plans to build affordable and social housing at the long-contested Tafelberg site in Sea Point.

During a public meeting at the Life Conference Centre in Sea Point on Wednesday evening, three options were presented.… Read more

Fury in Dunoon over City home demolition

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Informal settlement residents have been replacing shacks with brick and mortar homes

By Peter Luhanga/GroundUp

Trouble flared up for the third day on Wednesday in Dunoon as protesters from Ezihagwini informal settlement vented their fury over the demolition of brick walls a resident had erected in an attempt to build a home.… Read more

Cape comedian guilty of hate speech

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Thomas Torr refused to respond to complaint of antisemitism and threatened to kill judge’s registrar

By Tania Broughton/GroundUp

Thomas Leyland Torr, reportedly an aspiring comedian, has been found guilty of hate speech in the Equality Court, sitting in the Western Cape High Court.… Read more

Yoliswa Dwane Lecture: the war on Palestinian children

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“A nuclear power considers a sick baby to be a security concern.”

Israeli-born legal scholar Dr Noam Peleg gave this year’s Yoliswa Dwane Lecture on 6 May. The annual lecture is hosted by Equal Education and UCT’s Centre for Law and Society, in memory of activist and Equal Education co-founder Yoliswa Dwane who died of cancer in 2022.… Read more

Flower farm keeps Constantia’s coloured heritage alive

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Jaftha brothers help heal a history of land dispossession

Liezl Human/GroundUp

Hundreds of coloured families were forcibly removed from Constantia in the 1960s and ‘70s under the apartheid Group Areas Act but a fifth-generation flower farming family is bringing their rich history to life.… Read more