Saturday, 17 August 2019
Dennis has a research background in labour, land and housing. He writes about cities, farm work and popular politics in the countryside.
Like most of South Africa’s township film theatres, the Kings Cinema died shortly after democracy was born. Now, the grand dame of Alex big screen is back.
The unemployment figures in Statistics South Africa’s latest quarterly report are shocking, but 3.5 million people are missing from the official count.
According to a new report, the smaller cities that link South Africa’s rural and metropolitan centres face serious economic problems.
At the annual Maimane Alfred Phiri Games in Alexandra, tens of thousands of fans demand nothing less than pure township football. It’s a tough ask.
Despite a new funding mechanism to upgrade shack settlements, they appear to be absent from minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s priorities.
Cycling is affordable and good for the environment but South Africa’s busiest city has failed to make room and safety measures available for those who cycle.
Attempts to stave off economic decline and keep the festival globally competitive have meant constant change. This restaurant, however, is a welcome constant for artists and audiences.
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.