City argues that court doesn’t have jurisdiction to do that By Lucas Nowicki On Thursday the High Court in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) heard an application by the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) to dissolve the Makana Municipal Council for violating its constitutional mandate by failing to provide basic services to the community. The UPM is calling for the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional...

Casual Workers Advice Office vows to continue its work By Zoë Postman In the midst of xenophobic attacks on mostly immigrant-owned shops in Germiston, Johannesburg, non-profit organisation Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO) was looted and set alight on Monday evening. Shattered glass and CWAO cards were strewn across the pavement outside the office. On Tuesday afternoon, CWAO staff members were cleaning up the...

Employees of the Expanded Public Works Programme have essentially become ‘permanent casuals’ who earn a pittance and have no job security or collective bargaining power. By Anna Majavu For the past 12 years, about 150 people have swept the streets and cleared blocked drains in Uitenhage and Motherwell. They work in a government-funded programme administered by the Eastern Cape Department of...

The state’s case against the family of drowned schoolboy is “insensitive”, says Justice Navsa By Ciaran Ryan The Limpopo education department came in for sharp criticism from Supreme Court of Appeal judge Mahomed Navsa on Monday over the death of four year-old Michael Komape in a school pit toilet in 2014. “The Department has not exactly covered itself in glory with respect to...