Bread and skills to better impoverished lives
Many people in SA’s townships and rural areas struggle to make a living. Since 2008, one organisation has been doing its bit to help change this pattern.
Stories by: Naledi Sikhakhane
‘You can’t buy much with R350 but it helped’
The Covid-19 social relief of distress grant has helped impoverished families buy much-needed food, but it is too little to provide other essentials.
July riots have made hard lives much harder
The lives of thousands of workers in KwaZulu-Natal who were already barely surviving have been upended, either by losing their jobs or having to scramble to keep them.
Community solidarity in July chaos ends in death
Residents of Adams in KwaZulu-Natal were watching over a popular tuck shop run by a Pakistani refugee when a drive-by shooting killed one of them. The mother of the victim doubts there will be justice for her son.
Pietermaritzburg was a dump long before the riots
The effects of the past week’s unrest and destruction of property will have dire consequences for the KwaZulu-Natal capital, whose residents have watched for years how their city has been ruined.
Rioting leaves KZN township at a loss
Residents have been left to pick up the pieces after desperate people stripped the mall at the heart of Hammarsdale in KwaZulu-Natal.
Losing Yoyo: The consequences of late NSFAS funding
Yonwaba Manyanya was forced to sleep outside her Durban college when her financial aid funds didn’t arrive in time to pay rent. She died from smoke inhalation and exposure at 26.
Xenophobia flares ahead of Zambian elections
Shop customers are threatening migrant traders with violence come the national elections in August, amid a rise in xenophobia that appears to correlate with election periods in Africa.
A just society will be first prize for S’bu Zikode
Keeping his scout’s promise is how the leader of Abahlali baseMjondolo views his work as a land rights champion and defender of the oppressed, for which he has been recognised.
Shack dwellers’ champion vows to keep on fighting
The general secretary of Abahlali baseMjondolo is a source of strength for impoverished people, women in particular, as they organise against oppression.
Ruin in the aftermath of Durban’s xenophobic attacks
The Umkhonto weSizwe attacks on traders in the central business district have forced migrants in already precarious positions to start from scratch, again, while fearing for their lives.