Holding power to account
A group of water justice researchers has warned against the City of Cape Town’s proposal to “externalise” the implementation and operation of the Faure New Water Scheme.… Read more
Matthew Hirsch and Daniel Steyn/GroundUp
MEC for Western Cape Infrastructure Tertuis Simmers announced this week that he intends to finalise the tenders for three major inner-city housing projects built on state-owned land in Cape Town.… Read more
By Marecia Damons/GroundUp
The Department of Social Development is proposing changes to the Social Assistance Act, including removing questions about the income of applicants for the R370-a-month Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
The proposed amendments are open for public comment until Monday, 14 April.… Read more
A sod-turning ceremony for the construction of 86 homes in Protea Village, Bishopscourt, was attended by land claimants, community members and government officials on Tuesday 11 March.… Read more
Unathi Mangali’s daughter was a baby when they moved into 104 Darling Street in the Cape Town city centre twenty years ago. Today her daughter is 22 years old.… Read more
Set mostly in the Klein Karoo, beautifully written, atmospheric and irresistibly intriguing, The Fourth Boy explores notions of belonging and a myriad of other longings which I found profoundly moving. It tells the story of a young man’s search for his father against the backdrop of the 80s in apartheid South Africa and the fate of five hundred Polish WWII refugee children who arrived in Oudtshoorn in 1943 – a piece of local history I have been fascinated by for as long as I have lived in South Africa.… Read more
Humans are deeply sentimental creatures. This has been the case for millennia. It is evidenced by the number of personal artifacts buried together with human remains, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Egyptians to the present day. We keep letters, photos, scrapbooks of all the special moments and places.… Read more
One car subculture that announces its presence with sheer volume in Cape Town is the audio enthusiasts.
Take Granger Nieuwoudt and his Seat Vario Cordoba, the only car of its kind in the country. Experiencing the force of his sound system is a full body experience; you can literally feel your skin vibrating while your hair gets blown in every direction by those blasting decibels.… Read more
Hundreds of life-sized animal puppets will be performing in cities from Central Africa to the northern tip of Norway to highlight the loss of biodiversity caused by rapid, human-induced climate change.… Read more