In Pictures | Firefighters now fight for their jobs
Firefighters risked their lives to put out the flames threatening Cape Town. But more than 500 of them might be fired for trying to negotiate better working hours.
Stories by: Barry Christianson
Handling Covid-19 with no government clinic in sight
Bulungula Incubator is using its Xhora Mouth health point to respond to infections in this rural Eastern Cape area, where the nearest government clinic is a three-hour walk away.
An inherited struggle for dance
Nokuthula Qobongwana inherited her mother’s passion for dance and hopes to make a living through it. Just as she was getting started, Covid-19 came and halted it all.
Photo Essay | Comfort in an old Cape favourite
As 2020 came to an end, residents of the Cape Flats attempted to carve out some fun within the everyday chaos of the pandemic by visiting the Sea Point swimming pool.
Cape Town mayor’s no-show sparks services protest
The Intlungu yaseMatyotyombeni Movement, a grouping of shack dwellers, shut down the Civic Centre in an effort to get the City to provide services in their newly established settlements.
Community health workers’ pleas fall on deaf ears
The Western Cape health department steadfastly refuses to grant permanent employment to these workers, who receive paltry salaries and little recognition for the vital roles they fulfil.
Another child killed by callous police action
Video footage shows that members of the Western Cape police’s public order unit fired blithely at the homes of protesters in Laingville, resulting in the death of nine-year-old Leo Williams.
Bonteheuwel community centre spat lands up in court
The community action network in Bonteheuwel has taken the DA ward councillor to court over who has the right to use the local multipurpose centre.
Photo Essay | Tafelberg judgment gives activists hope
The court has set aside the sale of a Sea Point property and ordered local government to address spatial apartheid, injecting energy and hope into the Cissie Gool House occupation in Woodstock.
Community Care Centre in Ocean View a success
Ocean View residents who test positive for Covid-19 can now quarantine and self-isolate close to home while trained volunteers from the area look after them.
Healing connection at a Covid-19 isolation facility
Residents at a well-run facility in Cape Town found sharing their experiences – both as patients and citizens – aided their physical and emotional recovery.
Cape Town’s illegal Hangberg demolition reversed
The City of Cape Town had to rebuild a Wendy House-style home that it twice illegally and unconstitutionally demolished. Ginola Phillips and his brother have a home once more.
‘We were quiet, but they were violent’
In this second instalment in a series on police violence, New Frame investigates how police allegedly assaulted Petrus Miggels in Uitsig. He died at his home shortly after.
The unlikely story of Khayelitsha’s field hospital
Three people who found themselves marooned in Cape Town used their time and expertise to play key roles in setting up a 60-bed medical facility for Covid-19 patients in Khayelitsha.
How the Covid-19 team in Khayelitsha is coping
The Kess response team has been working tirelessly since mid-February to try keep the spread of the coronavirus in check, changing its strategy as the situation evolves.
Photo Essay | Capetonians come together to feed the hungry
During the government’s Covid-19 lockdown, four Western Cape communities have found ways to provide food for the hungry through collective volunteer action.
Groote Schuur anaesthesiologists prep for Covid-19
As the coronavirus spreads steadily in South Africa, a team of anaesthesiologists from Groote Schuur Hospital has been training and making personal sacrifices in readiness.
Lockdown means ‘eviction’ for many back-yard dwellers
Residents of the Empolweni shack settlement are allowed to rebuild homes demolished by the City of Cape Town. But what led to some of them occupying the land in the first place?
Women’s cooperative brings hope to the West Coast
Weskusmandjie in Steenberg’s Cove, uses traditional knowledge and technological innovation to bring hope to a fishing village.
Steenberg’s Cove is stuck between land and sea
Residents of the century-old fishing village on the West Coast are fighting to survive as the fishing industry declines, work remains seasonal and property developers attempt to relocate them.
Light Reading | Building destruction
Boeta Salie Mosaval’s landlord sold his home in Lower Woodstock and the new owners began renovating while the family was still living there. Gentrification, like the Group Areas Act, forced them out.