Musawenkosi Cabe

Originally from Pietermaritzburg, Musawenkosi Cabe’s areas of interest include bottom-up social mobilisation, social movements and unions, as well as football, social justice, spatial justice and constitutionalism.

Stories by: Musawenkosi Cabe

News

25 April 2019: Goodman Mpendulo Zulu outside his home in the Khokhoba informal settlement in Chatsworth which was badly damaged during the recent floods after the ground beneath his home was swept into the river below.

‘No return’ for those displaced by Durban floods

Floods are nothing new for shack dwellers, who have been forced to take refuge in community halls. With little hope of rebuilding, those affected are homeless for years at a time.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
3 May 2019

News

25 April 2019: A family member removes a pair of crosses that were placed at the site where eight bodies were uncovered after a mudslide behind the Westcliff Secondary School in Chatsworth, Durban, caused a house to collapse.

The eight who died in a Durban mudslide

Eight people lost their lives when their home collapsed in a mudslide in Chatsworth, Durban, leaving family members in disbelief at the ‘unthinkable’ tragedy.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
29 Apr 2019

News

24 April 2019: Scelo Mtshali, 35, at the Umhlatuzana River, which burst its banks and flooded his shack in the nearby eKukhanyeni settlement. The water destroyed Mtshali’s construction tools, which he uses to make a living doing building jobs.

Durban floods: Devastation, courage & resilience

The floods in KwaZulu-Natal have damaged RDP houses, destroyed shacks and damaged homes along river banks.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
26 Apr 2019

News

14 March 2019: Workers protesting outside ArcelorMittal in Vanderbijlpark for permanent contracts and better working conditions.

Labour brokers are sidestepping the law, says Numsa

The ongoing strike at ArcelorMittal has brought the issue of noncompliance with Labour Relations Act amendments regarding temporary workers to the fore.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
12 Apr 2019

Culture

18 December 1976: American musician Stevie Wonder entertains students at the Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York, United States. (Photograph by Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images)

The soundtrack to South Africa’s elections

‘I live in the ghetto, you just come to visit me ’round election time,’ sings Stevie Wonder, who has advocated against apartheid and for the poor in song and action.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
9 Apr 2019

News

11 December 2018: Western Cape Commissioner Khombinkosi Jula, Police Minister Bheki Cele and Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole at the opening of a new police station in Samora Machel in Cape Town. (Photograph by Gallo Images/Netwerk 24/Adrian de Kock)

Equality court sets new policing precedent

The Western Cape court has ruled that the under-allocation of police resources in Khayelitsha amounts to unfair discrimination based on race and socioeconomic status.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
27 Mar 2019

News

20 March 2019: The Chinese Association’s Vice-chairperson Francis Lai Hong at his home.

Chinese association takes racist trolls to court

An outburst of xenophobic and racist social media posts directed against the South African Chinese community prompted it to lay charges in the equality court.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
26 Mar 2019

News

16 March 2019: National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa members protest outside the US consulate in Sandton, Johannesburg, in solidarity with the Venezuelan government and against American interference in the country.

Protest against ‘attempted coup’ in Venezuela

Numsa and SRWP members gathered outside the US consulate in Sandton, Joburg, to protest against US involvement and ‘defend the gains of socialism’ in the South American country.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
19 Mar 2019

News

13 February 2019: At a meeting in Diepkloof, Soweto Action Committee secretary general Lerato Mogapi addresses residents unhappy with a range of issues, especially prepaid electricity meters.

Soweto’s power struggle

Diepkloof residents struggle to afford electricity under Eskom’s prepaid meter system and are against the utility’s proposed 15% tariff increase.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
5 Mar 2019

News

Uber drivers lament exploitative WesBank deal

A programme to help Uber drivers obtain vehicles has proven exorbitantly expensive – and drivers still won’t own their cars in the end.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
14 Feb 2019

News

Hope for domestic workers

Proposed new legislation would make it possible for domestic workers to claim compensation for injury, illness or death on the job. But how will the government enforce the change?

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
24 Jan 2019

News

18 October 2018: Community leader and chairperson of the Marievale Residents Association, Chris Koitsioe, 56, at his home in Happiness Village before it was petrol bombed this week.

Marievale activist’s house petrol bombed

With the community refusing to leave the army base on which they have lived for 20 years, the dispute has turned vicious, with intimidation escalating to potentially deadly acts.

By: Magnificent Mndebele, Musawenkosi Cabe
7 Dec 2018

News

8 October 2018: A resident is pictured outside one of the many homes built in Happiness Village, just across from Marievale. Residents say they are regularly intimidated by soldiers who want them to leave.

Marievale residents react to setback in court

Disappointed after the defence minister and army were found not in contempt of court, evicted residents say that they don’t ‘have power as people’.

By: Magnificent Mndebele, Musawenkosi Cabe
3 Dec 2018

News

21 October 2013: Joseph Mampye in front of his shack near the Wallmansthal military base where residents were forcibly evicted from in the 1950's. A claim for the land was lodged with the government in 1996. (Photograph by Vathiswa Ruselo/Gallo images)

Parliament wants to extend the long wait for land

A land claims backlog that will take up to 35 years to process hangs in the balance as new claims continue to flood in. In the meantime, claimants continue to wait.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
8 Nov 2018

News

25 October 2018: Residents of the Lesetlheng village community from the North West celebrating outside the Constitutional Court after the court set aside the High Court interdict evicting them from their farming land.

Legal victory for mining communities

Constitutional Court judgment overrules High Court decision that mining rights supersede the rights of landowners.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
26 Oct 2018

News

19 October 2018: Vusumzi Mabho, Numsa’s national sector coordinator for the plastic industry, at the Labour Court in Braamfontein after the court dismissed an application to interdict the ongoing strike in the industry.

Numsa celebrates dismissal of plastic sector interdict

The application to interdict 10 000 striking workers in the plastic industry has been dismissed by the labour court.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
19 Oct 2018

News

19 September 2018: A woman sits in her room as a child walks down a corridor at A Re Ageng Nthabeleng shelter for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, in Simunye Township in Randfontein.

Welfare workers exploited

Workers who care for and protect the most vulnerable people in society are themselves under threat.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
3 Oct 2018

News

31 August 2018: Siyambusa Mpolase, a resident of the Good Hope shack settlement in Germiston during his fifth appearance at the Germiston magistrates’ court on a charge of public violence

Police misuse the criminal justice system to silence dissent

Grassroots activists are routinely arrested on bogus charges, most often public violence, and then made to appear in court on multiple occasions before the charges are dropped.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
26 Sep 2018

News

2 July 2013: A youth smokes weed in Soweto. Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.

Puff, puff, pass

Constitutional Court judgment warmly received as South Africa inches closer to the decriminalisation of cannabis.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
20 Sep 2018

News

15 August 2018: Electricity pylons are seen in the Slovo Park settlement in the south of Johannesburg. The community has fought long and hard for the government to provide them with electricity.

City begrudgingly lights up Slovo Park

After a long struggle, and a 2016 court decision, electricity is finally being installed in the Slovo Park settlement, south of Johannesburg.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
28 Aug 2018

News

Constitutional Court ruling on labour brokers a victory for the working poor

The long-awaited judgment of the Constitutional Court handed down on Thursday brought to an end an almost four-year-long legal battle on the correct interpretation of a section of the Labour Relations Act.

By: Musawenkosi Cabe
27 Jul 2018