George Bizos, who advocated for human rights and defended poor people throughout his life, has passed away at the age of 92, from natural causes. Bizos, who grew up in a small rural village in Greece, became one of South Africa’s most distinguished and celebrated lawyers. He was part of the team that defended Nelson […]

The Supreme Court of South Africa today dismissed the appeal of Nelson Mandela Bay ANC councillor Andile Lungisa over his sentence to two years in jail over an incident in 2016 where he hit a Democratic Alliance councillor over the head with a water jug (see video below).   Lungisa was found guilty in April […]

The clichéd adage “boys will be boys” has, over the ages, normalised unbecoming behaviours. It has also socialised young men into thinking that being a man could entail getting away with reckless behaviour, even the use of violence and aggression to assert power. In her analysis of violent masculinities in post-apartheid South Africa, feminist scholar Pumla […]

In May 2017 we (GroundUp) took photos of Cape Town’s dam levels at the height of the drought. This is what the Berg River looked like then: And this is what it looked like on Saturday: And below is what Theewaterskloof, which can hold more than half of Cape Town’s water at capacity, looked like […]

The Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRAA) says it applauds the decision announced in Zimbabwe yesterday to ban mining in national parks. The Association says it had noted with “great alarm” the reports that Special Mining Grants had been issued to mine coal within Hwange National Park. The decision was announced on Tuesday by Zimbabwe’s […]

South Africans have done what they do best – and responded to the latest scene of horror, with humour. After a woman with grey hair pulled out a gun on EFF protestors in a Port Elizabeth shopping centre yesterday (watch video below), headlines about the gun-toting granny went viral. It’s now been followed by a […]

COVID-19 cases have jumped to 640 441 after 1 079 new cases were identified on Tuesday. Meanwhile, 82 more people have succumbed to the disease which brings the death toll to 15 086. Of the latest deaths, 27 are in KwaZulu-Natal, 20 in the Western Cape and 15 in Gauteng. Three provinces recorded single-digit fatalities […]

South Africa’s Olympic and World Champ athlete, Caster Semenya, has responded philosophically to the latest disappointment in her running career. It was announced yesterday that Caster (29) has lost her appeal to Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court. The appeal was against the restriction of testosterone levels in female runners. The loss means Caster will not be […]

The Zimbabwean government has banned mining inside national parks, after reports surfaced that two Chinese companies had been granted rights to mine for coal in Hwange National Park and conservationists and lawyers kicked into gear to stop it. “Mining on areas held by National Parks is banned with immediate effect. Steps are being undertaken to […]

PRETORIA – The South African Police Service has said that a series of social media posts depicting a building in Pretoria – a police building – as a centre for human trafficking is fake news. In a statement today, the police said the building on Johannes Ramokhoase Street in the CBD was in fact a […]

Gross domestic product for South Africa fell by just over 16 percent between the first and second quarters of 2020, giving an annualised growth rate of ‑51 percent, according to figures released today by Stats SA. The one sector to see good growth (15 percent) was agriculture. [Thread]Steep slump in #GDP as #COVID19 takes its […]

In a debut novel that has been called “stunning,” “sparkling,” “compelling” and “engrossing” by reviewers in England, South African Helen Moffett has taken a minor character from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and breathed life into her, creating “an enjoyable, even racy addition to the drawing-room industry of novels riffing off Austen.” The novel is […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the plunge in South Africa’s gross domestic product during the second quarter of 2020 reflects the severe impact of the global Coronavirus pandemic on the economy and should spur all South Africans to do all they can to help rebuild the economy.   While the 16.4% contraction in the second quarter […]

Clicks has announced Tuesday afternoon that it is delisting the TRESemmé brand with immediate effect, and has accepted the resignation of the senior executive responsible for offensive advert which caused hurt in South Africa and led to the EFF launching protests across the country against systematic racism. Clicks said in a media statement that all […]

Nyameka Goniwe, widow of Matthew Goniwe, died a week ago. Matthew was an anti-apartheid activist and one of the ‘Cradock Four’… writes Riaan de Villiers. An activist in her own right, who participated in local government in later years, Nyameka died at age 69 – just over 35 years after the death of her husband. […]

SAPeople has collaborated with the Democratic Alliance (DA) to petition South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister to resolve the passport renewal application crisis that is currently brewing abroad. SAPeople is inundated daily with cries for help from South Africans abroad who are unable to contact their own Embassies, and whose passports are expiring – putting their […]

The South African Government has expressed concern at the vandalising and torching of Clicks stores across the country, saying it goes against the spirit of peace and respect for human rights. In a statement on Monday, government said it noted the public outrage following the Clicks advertisement, where black hair is portrayed as “dry and […]

A campaign spearheaded by Western Cape photographer Angela Gorman has been launched to urgently save Muizenberg’s iconic Beach Huts before they “crumble into the sand”. Angela told SAPeople that despite being renovated in 2017, the usually photogenic and very Instagram-able huts, are now in a state of total disrepair… as can be seen from Angela’s […]

Women photographers, and black African women photographers in particular, are largely absent from early histories of the medium. Even in South Africa, which has attracted more attention than other parts of the continent, few women photographers from the early and mid-1900s appear in the historical record. There are even fewer whose work has been collected […]

After 400 Clicks stores across the country were apparently shut by Economic Freedom Fighters supporters today, and seven damaged and/or petrol-bombed, charges are to be laid against the EFF, several of whose leaders exhorted members to “Attack” the pharmaceutical chain today over a controversial advertisement. Clicks apologised publicly on Friday for the TRESemme hair product […]

Not even half of all school children who qualify to benefit from the National School Nutrition Programme are receiving meals, according to the Department of Basic Education (DBE) briefing to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee. This was revealed on Tuesday (1 September), when the state of reopening schools, updates on the National School Nutrition Programme, and […]

The water situation in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has reached a crisis and prompted the City to finally declare it Day Zero. Nelson Mandela Bay has declared Day Zero as dam levels fall 19%. Water is being trucked in after some areas’ taps ran dry for six days. Businesses are struggling to operate. The […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has conveyed his condolences to the family of activist and writer Achmat Dangor who passed away on Sunday. The President described the passing of the 71-year-old acclaimed author and political activist as “a loss to the literary, arts and culture fraternity and the country at large”. “Achmat Dangor was born into a […]

A band of citizens in inner city Johannesburg this weekend became the latest private grouping trying to make an impact on the often-overlooked and dire garbage situation plaguing the streets, and they took to one of the worst-hit areas, Hillbrow. “The CleanCitySA Adopt a Street Volunteers Network was successfully launched in Hillbrow today,” CleanCitySA said […]

A video filmed in the UK has gone viral on Twitter, showing a man with what appears to be a towel wrapped around his waist, on a construction site, yelling at a white-skinned South African (something he mentions) who is not in view. It appears that the South African may have been the foreman on […]