Shortage of teachers threatens to close Mdantsane school
The education crisis in the Eastern Cape is set to continue as some primary schools are set to close down because of a lack of […]
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Refugee woman’s struggle for access to chronic medication
Despite the ongoing xenophobic attacks on African, an HIV positive woman claims that she was turned away at the hospital because she is a refugee […]
Crime and poverty: recipe for xenophobia
A recent media briefing by groups that are concerned about the ongoing xenophobic attacks has blamed the lack of service delivery by the government. In […]
Cleaners’ union wants the minimum wage to be raised to R5,000
The recent announcement by the government that the national minimum wage should be set at R3,500 a month has not settled well with some employees, including their labour organisations.
The contentious issue of the national minimum wage has been a subject of debate for many years the government, employers and labour unions. Labour unions feel that R3,500 is just a drop in an ocean in light of the current socio-economic situation plaguing the country.
Domestic workers’ union says the proposed minimum wage is too little
Whilst delivering his speech on the proposed minimum wage of R3,500 a month, Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa said that the national minimum wage was aimed at reducing income poverty and inequality. The advisory panel which was looking into the the issue proposed that wages in the domestic work sector should be set at 75% of the proposed national minimum wage. In a report released in June by The National Minimum Wage Research Initiative of the School of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand, 90% of domestic workers earn less than R3,120 a month.
Children flock to the pied-biker of Khayelitsha
A roof-high jumble of old bicycles piled on the sidewalk like a modern sculpture grabs the attention of motorists driving along Khayelitsha’s Mew Way.
The pile is made even more arresting by the shacks of wood and rusting corrugated iron that line the township’s main thoroughfare.
Long queues at health centres frustrate chronic patients
The night before David Mashaba (64) needs to go for his monthly checkup and collect his medication at the Gugulethu Clinic, he sets his alarm to 4am in order to get to the City-run clinic by 5.30.
Even though the clinic only opens at 7, there is already a long queue of people lined up before sunrise in the hope that, by being among the first in line, they’ll get out by 3pm, indicative of the achingly slow administrative and medical processes due to the high number of patients and low number of staff at the clinic.
No birth certificate, no education
A seven-year-old Philippi girl has internalized the shame of not having a birth certificate to such an extent that she hides inside the house so that people don’t ask why she is not at school.
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