Cape Town

Long queues at health centres frustrate chronic patients

29th November 2016 Noluthando Matshoba 0

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.

Veggie garden feeds and greens Khayelitsha

29th November 2016 Simosihle Apolisi 0

The establishment of a food garden at Isikhokelo Primary school in Khayelitsha has sparked a small vegetable gardening revolution in the township.
Founder of the Ikhaya Food Garden at Isikhokelo Primary, Xolisa Banga, said he approached the school to plant vegetables on a portion of their property in 2013 in order to help feed the children and educate the community about healthy eating.

Local brothers get learners excited about literacy

29th November 2016 Chandre Appels 0

Upon entering the classroom at Lantana Primary in Lentegeur, Read to Rise programme manager Roscoe Williams is greeted with hugs and high fives from excited Grade Two learners.
The learners had been waiting in anticipation for their interactive reading session to begin as word spread that Williams was in the building. After three years of visiting the school, his Read to Rise programme has become a favourite activity.

Cyclists crank the Ks for literacy campaign

14th November 2016 Ezra Makhetha-Kates 0

Four men are to embark on a four-day cycle tour from Ladysmith to Cape Town in a bid to raise money to develop literacy among girls attending the Chumisa Primary school in Khayelitsha.
The 320km ride starting on 1 November, is in support of the Cape Town-based Thope Foundation, an NPO focused on supporting the holistic development of African girls, and the men, all of whom are from the Western Cape, are hoping to raise R100,000 for the Foundation’s work.

Kraaifontein tshisanyama entrepreneur thrives

14th November 2016 Landiswa Mazeka 0

Mzoli’s in Gugulethu is Cape Town’s most renowned tshisanyama, with locals and tourists gathering in their hundreds to enjoy the braaied meat and party atmosphere over weekends.
Now it seems Mzoli’s has some competition in the form of the Adwa and Wallacedene Cafes near Kraaifontein.

Frontline Community Health Workers kept in the dark

14th November 2016 Noluthando Matshoba 0

In a country that has the biggest divide between public and private healthcare, community careworkers are not recognized as employees and do not enjoy labour rights and the protection of SA’s labour laws.
In a gloomy room in a cinder block RDP house so cramped there is barely enough space to move his wheelchair, Masixole Sosikela, 29, looks as if he is part of the furniture.
Sosikela lost the use of his legs in a car accident three years ago and has since been confined to the small house he shares with his mother and young brother. With his mother at work and his brother at school, he spends his days alone in the house in BM Section, Greenpoint, Khayelitsha. His only daytime visitor is home community health worker, Nikezwa Bara, who comes to see him three times a week. She spends about an hour with him, washing and dressing his bedsores, emptying his catheter and changing his linen. Bara also prepares him something to eat in the kitchen and wheels him outside to enjoy a bit of sunshine.
Bara is one of 106 community health workers (CHWs) in Khayelitsha who offer essential health and social services to over 1,000 patients who are bed-ridden or chronically or terminally ill. For these patients, the CHWs are a lifeline of care and company.

Mobile Satellite Police Station in Site C

14th November 2016 Simosihle Apolisi 0

Despite a mobile police station in the area, residents believe that crime continues unabated.
While a new mobile police station in Site C has been helpful for people wanting to verify documents and obtain affidavits, residents say it does nothing to prevent crime.
The mobile station was placed at the Site C shopping plaza on 27 May this year and opened by national deputy minister of police, Maggie Sotyu, who claimed that it would be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, in order to strengthen the fight against crime.

Gugs grooves to live jazz

11th October 2016 Sandisile Silwana 0

For the month of September, Gugs grooved to the sounds of great international and local jazz musicians every Sunday as part of the Jazz Heritage Festival hosted by the increasingly popular Jazz in the Native Yards initiative.

The BM section fire victims will finally see the light

11th October 2016 Max Qwayi 0

Victims of the devastating New Year’s Day fire in Khayelitsha BM Section in 2013, who have been living without electricity for three years, are to finally receive power this month, the City has announced.
The fire which tore through the informal settlement, resulted in three deaths and the destruction of 800 homes, with 331 homes allowed to be temporarily rebuilt on land next to the OR Tambo Hall on Mew Way, a short distance from BM Section.

Walking Bus protects pupils from gangs

11th October 2016 Chandre Appels 0

Running the gauntlet to school is no longer a danger for some children in gang-infested Mitchells Plain thanks to an innovative ‘walking bus’ initiative implemented by the Western Cape Community Safety MEC Dan Plato earlier this year.
The initiative, which sees parents and grandparents volunteering to accompany groups of children to and from school, was introduced in Delft in May, and expanded to include the Mitchells Plain areas of Lentegeur and Beacon Valley in June.

Masibambisane High on the IT map with Korean help

11th October 2016 Zimbini Molisi 0

A Maths and Science school in Delft has received a major donation from Samsung.
A high school in gang-ridden Delft hosted 30 Korean volunteers for a week, who, as part of a team from electronics giant Samsung, taught learners smartphone repair skills and how to establish an online shopping portal.