The poverty porn of matric results
The release of matric results every year usually ushers in a slew of reports of young people who've succeeded despite great odds. SIAN FERGUSON...
“Travelling the world isn’t that glamorous” nomadic SA couple
Earlier this year, we caught up with the South African couple behind the How Far From Home blog, who cashed in their savings to travel the world....
A tale of a Burundian orphan
Since April, tens of thousands of people have fled the ongoing violence in Burundi which has seen more than 300 people killed and 240,000...
“Women should know that they are never alone”
Philani Sangweni (23) decided he wanted to make a difference in his community and work to end gender violence, so he joined Brothers for...
Meet the hero behind City of Jozi’s twitter account
TUMELO KOMAPE, better known in the Twittersphere as TK is one of the faces behind the City of Joburg’s Twitter account. He told Mbali...
It takes a village: How one family faced the triple threat...
AMAHLE MQADI* (20) tells Zilungile Mnisi about the toll alcohol abuse, poverty, neglect and rape took on her family.
I grew up in the Eastern...
“Women should be respected, whatever the circumstances”
NOMZAMO MKHIZE* left home to look for employment in Durban but soon found herself embroiled in prostitution and drugs. She told Zilungile Mnisi how she...
“Higher education is not a privilege, it’s a constitutional right”
OFENTSE MAKGAE, 23, was recently awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to do his PhD at Oxford University in the UK in 2016. He told...
“Poverty led me to prostitution”
SIHLE MHLONGO* moved away from home in Soweto when he was 18, to search for a better life on the streets of the Joburg CBD. He told...
“They can’t afford to take students to Medunsa, but they can...
KEALEBOGA GODFREY MOHIBIDU dropped out of the electrical engineering programme at the University of Pretoria after losing his scholarship. He told Firdaus Khan about how he had to...
“Being a student in South Africa comes with so much frustration”
After being financially excluded in her second year of study, SILONDILE CELE (20), from Adams in KZN, learnt that being a student at university...
“If other countries can afford students free education, why can’t we?”
SEABELO MOEPI (21) was a chemistry and biochemistry major at UCT. But he couldn't keep up with the fees and found himself excluded before...
“University fees make it impossible to fulfil your dreams”
The Umthombo Youth Development Foundation, a program that funds students from rural areas to study health sciences, may no longer be able to fund...
Campus protests – updates [26 October]
Student protests, arising from the #FeesMustFall movement, are continuing into their third week. Things are moving quickly at campuses around the country and the Daily Vox...
#Rhodes student: “We can’t compromise with this fee increase”
It's the second day of the #RhodesMIPMustFall protest and it's currently 31 degrees in Grahamstown. Protesters sit in the shade of the barricade they...
I experienced a violent outburst at the #WitsFeesMustFall protest
Civil engineering student RAYHAAN ESSOP (26) was caught on the Wits University campus during the #WitsFeesMustFall protest on Wednesday, and got involved in an...
“To me, education is a way of showing unconditional love”
VELI MNISI has taught at schools in Matsulu, Mpumalanga for 27 years. Today, he is the principal at S’bongile Primary School. On World Teacher’s Day, Zilungile...
Retelling Gandhi’s story: was he a racist?
The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire, a new book by sociologist Ashwin Desai and historian Goolam Vahed, focuses on Gandhi’s first leadership experiences...
From India’s villages to South Africa’s metropolis, and six generations on
KAMROONISSA NANOOMIA-KHAN (73) traces her heritage back to India but her roots are right here in South Africa. She told her granddaughter, Firdaus Khan, about her family...
“When talking about our heritage, it’s difficult to decide what it...
YUSUF DADOO, the nephew of apartheid struggle hero Dr Yusuf Dadoo, reflects on his heritage and tells Aaisha Dadi Patel why he thinks understanding...
