News

Latest Water Outlook report paints a worrying picture for coming years

• The City of Cape Town’s New Water Programme is only expected to be fully operational by 2036, yet demand is expected to exceed current dam water allocation in two years.

Violent protests related to the NSFAS funding cap, among other demands, have rocked Cape Peninsula University of Technology campuses over the past month

Some of the demands made by protesting Cape Peninsula University of Technology students have been met by the university management.… Read more

Calls for accommodation cap to be scrapped or redesigned

By Liezl Human

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) accommodation funding cap has not managed to curb high student housing prices. Instead, it has been used as a “price signal” for service providers to push up rents, Minister of Higher Education and Training Buti Manamela told Parliament’s portfolio committee for higher education on 28 August.… Read more

While most people prefer to die at home, a minority desperately need specialist care that can only be provided in an institution

By Marecia Damons

St Luke’s is a much respected institution that has been looking after people with life-threatening illnesses in Cape Town since 1980.… Read more

But amaBhungane disputes “straw-man” findings

• PRASA says an independent investigation found no evidence it contracted with or paid alleged gang boss Ralph Stanfield or his wife, Nicole Johnson, or their linked companies.
• But amaBhungane says the investigation failed to address the allegations in its reporting and lacked access to key evidence, including PRASA’s former security chief’s devices.

More than 150 people face eviction from three abandoned buildings in Hope Street

By Matthew Hirsch/GroundUp

Caroline Abrahams just turned 56 but says she has nothing to celebrate. She is one of over 150 people whose lives are in limbo as they face being evicted from three abandoned buildings in Cape Town’s Hope Street.… Read more

SANParks ordered by forestry department to clear all remaining pines

By John Yeld/GroundUp

A new push to promote ecological restoration in the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) and reduce fire risk could see the removal of all remaining pine trees and other invasives from former plantation areas at Tokai and Cecilia.… Read more

The “people’s train” doesn’t include people with disabilities

By Mary-Anne Gontsana

In 2016, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) promised to make all its stations accessible to wheelchair users. Ten years later, this is an empty promise, as we found when we accompanied wheelchair user Khanyo Mantshi on a journey in Cape Town.… Read more

Two massive water-hungry and energy-hungry data centres are proposed next to the airport

An application that paves the way for two new data centres totalling more than 120,000 square metres in Cape Town’s airport industrial area has been approved by the Municipal Planning Tribunal.… Read more

Tenants and objectors are concerned about how required heritage report was ignored in adjacent massive River Club development

The provincial government plans to allow five-storey buildings and more than 1,300 housing units to be built within the Oude Molen Eco-Village alongside the Black River, but their required Heritage Impact Assessment has been turned down.… Read more