Research and non-governmental organisations that focus on policing have warned that the crime statistics do not reveal the extent of crime in the country but are only about reported crimes. This follows the release of national crime statistics on Tuesday by the Minister of Police.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A shopping complex in Harare, Khayelitsha was placed under siege by a mob of about 30 angry youth from the area who demanded jobs at the small businesses be given to local residents.
The youth, believed to have been led by local ANC Youth League organiser, Yanga Mjingwana, converged on the Hilltop shopping centre where Spar is the anchor tenant. During lunchtime they disrupted shoppers and forced the closure of Learn to Earn and the Moholo Lounge.
It has barely been a few years since the club was formed but it has already made an impact on young people’s lives in Khayelitsha
In the heart of Khayelitsha, one of the oldest black townships, where crime is the order of the day, is a Cycle Academy known as Bonga Cycle Academy. It’s aim is to draw youth’s attention from township ills towards healthy sport and exercise.
If it is not blocked toilets, then it’s garbage piling up next to people’s homes. But the community of Duncan Village in East London say they know the importance of voting.
It was a sunny Sunday when Elitsha visited the area. Most people were busy doing their washing, some sitting next to their shacks. There were political party representatives who were busy doing door to door campaigning.
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