Monday, 14 October 2019
Dennis Webster has a research background in labour, land and housing. He writes about cities, farmwork and popular politics in rural areas.
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.
In 2018, rail commuters are still enduring the savage travel regimes imposed by apartheid’s perverse urban planning.
New satellite images show that more than one in four homes in South Africa’s economic heartland is either a backyard shack or in a gated community.
For the students of a small dojo, a public park in Yeoville offers a rare chance for recreation.
A group of Hillbrow residents are organising beyond the walls of their own homes, and without regard for national identities.
Activists S’bu Zikode and Willie Baptist, who have organised land and housing occupations on either side of the Atlantic, speak about the dignity of having a home.
Agbogbloshie, home to almost 100,000 people, and one of the 10 most polluted places on the planet, is the world largest electronics graveyard.
More than 5 000 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo took to the streets of Durban yesterday to demand an end to ongoing political killings.
‘Political killings are easy’: Unusual circumstances shroud the funeral ceremony of murdered amaMpondo headman.