Philippi High students demand promised new school
About 150 students from Philippi High School marched to the Metro South Education District Office demanding that a new school they say was promised to […]
Regions
B-Section kids play in danger
A lack of playground facilities in Khayelitsha B-Section means children are risking their lives by crossing the busy Mandela Road in order to get to a playpark in neighbouring A-Section.
Gender violence and child abuse continue during 16 Days of Activism
It is 18 years since South Africa adopted the 16 days of activism international campaign against gender violence and child abuse. South African women are still being abused daily.
The Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children has assisted more than 180,000 victims of crime and violence. Situated on the Cape Flats, an area with one of the highest crime and unemployment rates in Cape Town, the Centre houses an average of 100 women and children at a time.
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.
Khayelitsha clubs disappointed with Football For Hope
As part of its 2010 World Cup initiative, FIFA promised to develop disadvantaged communities throughout Africa with their Football for Hope initiative. The first one is situated in the Harare area of Khayelitsha, and offered football as a diversion from drugs and crime.
FIFA launched the Football for Hope initiative in 2005 to help improve the lives and prospects of young people around the world by funding, equipping and offering training to organisations. Khayelitsha was the first of 20 centres that were built.
The healthy and delicious truck food in Khayelitsha
In the age of tshisanyamas in the township, an entrepreneur is offering healthy food as an alternative.
An old school bus, painted black and refurbished as a top quality travelling kitchen, can be found parked outside popular township tshisanyamas and offering delicious healthy food as an alternative to plates full of braaied meat.
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.
Veggie garden feeds and greens Khayelitsha
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.
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.
Local brothers get learners excited about literacy
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.
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