Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Dennis has a research background in labour, land and housing. He writes about cities, farm work and popular politics in the countryside.
School students changed the course of history when they took to the streets of Soweto on 16 June 1976. What happened to their classmates in Alexandra two days later is a lost story.
Company executives fed Corn Flakes to primary school children in Gauteng on World Hunger Day. But nearby, a former Kellogg’s worker couldn’t bear to look at the cereal it produces.
A judge lambasted game farmer Arthur Rudman for alleging he was threatened by former workers. But with the farm’s empowerment scheme being liquidated, the fight is only beginning.
Joburg’s flagship public bus system was meant to connect a divided city. Ten years later, and in the wake of a budget boost, Rea Vaya’s transformative vision remains unrealised.
You will probably never get to see the grit and grace of Sunday football in Mpondoland. It’s part of the Baleni league’s magic, but also the downfall of its more talented players.
The upcoming elections will determine if the African Transformation Movement, with its ready-made churchgoing constituency in the ANC’s Eastern Cape heartland, is here to stay.
Just, a newly formed bloc of mainly northern suburbs residents, is stalling policies intended to bring Joburg’s poorer residents closer to the city’s social and economic offerings.
A history of local conflict resolution in one of South Africa’s oldest townships has been taken up by a council of traditional healers. Their next struggle is for recognition.
The notion of ‘insiders’ versus ‘outsiders’ has shaped the politics in Joburg’s Alexandra township for generations. Now, in the lead-up to elections, it is being rekindled and repurposed.
An opencast coal mine has begun operations in northern KwaZulu-Natal despite global declines in coal production and, according to the villagers who live there, at their expense.
A policy to make the city more inclusive – to allow people to live closer to services and jobs – is provoking staunch opposition from residents in leafy northern suburbs.
The Constitutional Court will decide if the onus is on workers to prove their innocence when strikes turn violent. It may be a judgment that goes down in history.
A new policy that will compel private developers to bear some responsibility for providing affordable housing is on the horizon in Johannesburg.
The Kellogg’s factory in Springs has a rich and radical musical history. Some of the workers recently dismissed from the plant are keeping that legacy alive.
The construction companies building the Mtentu mega bridge in Mpondoland want to terminate their contract with Sanral, citing resistance from within local communities.
Ba-Pita was one of the bohemian institutions that fostered radical thinking in Yeoville, Johannesburg, during and after apartheid, but it did not survive. Now, though, it’s back.
Stephen Mwelase, a casual worker for four decades at Kellogg’s, won permanent employment in 2018. Now he is one of 10 skilled, former casual workers dismissed by the company.
In eastern Mpondoland, skunk has slowly colonised dagga production. But if you look hard enough, you’ll still find the fabled strain endemic to the region dotted among the hills.
The cleanliness of Joburg’s municipal swimming pools appears to depend on the affluence of the areas in which they are located, with those in working class suburbs neglected.
A landmark court victory against an Australian mining giant and the minerals department has been widely celebrated. But the community says the fight for Mpondoland has only begun.
Despite a legal obligation to inform on their comrades, workers across the country are refusing to do so, resulting in dismissal.