Stories of 2018

This is the last post from this year. 2018 has been a challenging year on all fronts. Elitsha has brought you stories that mattered in 2018, stories about how the outside world has affected you and how the black working class in South Africa and in your area has affected the world.

In Cape Town in January we were faced with water crisis. Water activists have called it water mismanagement based on the fact that they believe that the crisis level of water in Cape Town was unnecessary and could have been avoided.

The ongoing train crisis especially in the Western Cape was a major contributor to late coming and job losses.

A cult church in Engcobo, a rural town in the Eastern Cape, brought the issue of religion and how churches, especially Pentecostal churches are run, to the fore.

Students in higher learning institutions especially in the Eastern Cape brought the issue of accommodation into mainstream debate. The FeesMustFall movement in 2015/16 saw students from previously disadvantaged institutions protesting not just against fees but also for better living conditions on campuses.

Workers, especially those affiliated to the South African Federation of Trade Unions, and activists protested against labour law amendments that they argued would restrict the right to strike and privilege unions entrenched in bargaining councils. The amendments were signed into law in November by President Ramaphosa anyway.

In 2018 we saw so-called Coloured communities in the Cape and elsewhere protesting against poor policing and what they have termed as the “neglect of Coloured communities in post democratic South Africa.”

Foreign nationals in Cape Town called for the re-opening of the refugee office in Foreshore so that they can apply for or renew their asylum there, rather than in faraway Pretoria.

The question of land entered mainstream debate in South Africa during the year. There were hearings all over the country on whether South Africa should expropriate land without compensation or not.

In the month of August, we saw gender activists, feminists and women taking to the streets against gender-based violence and the need for the South African government to do something against the scourge.

A Human Science Research Council of South Africa released a survey report that revealed that young people especially primary school girl children are victims of sexual abuse.

There was also an explosion at the state-owned arms manufacturer, Denel, that left 8 workers dead in Macassar near Somerset West in Cape Town.

In 2018, Elitsha brought you the second international congress of domestic workers where they decided to fight to improve working conditions of migrant domestic workers.

The ongoing strike by MyCiTi bus project workers in Cape Town presented a problem for the municipality and for trade unions. The strikers are fighting for the City of Cape Town to directly employ them instead of outsourcing.