About Features News Sport Analysis Editorial Culture Podcasts
About Features News Sport Analysis Editorial Culture Podcasts

This page collects the New Frame archive.

New Frame was a not-for-profit social justice publication that ran from 2018 to 2022. The publication had a pro-poor, pro-working class focus and aimed to report faithfully, informatively and accessibly about the lives and struggles of ordinary people. Over the course of four years, New Frame published almost 5 000 pieces of well-written and well-illustrated journalism.

New Frame closed on 1 July 2022 after its funding was suddenly cut. You can read about the controversy here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

This archival site has been put up by some of the ex-New Frame employees so that our hard work can continue to have an impact.

NEWS

Housing activists under threat in Thembisa

Daring to question the botched relocation of shack dwellers from one settlement to another has brought Abahlali members to the attention of hitmen and the metro police.

Maru Attwood
30 June 2022

Izishoshovu zokuhlaliswa kwabantu zisengozini eThembisa

Ngenxa nje yokuba nesibindi sokubuza ngokungaphumeleli kohlelo lokutholelwa indawo entsha kwabantu abahlala emikhukhiwni besuswa kwenye sekufake amalungu Abahlali baseMjondolo enkingeni yokuzingelw…

Maru Attwood
30 June 2022

Overworked Eastern Cape education assistants unpaid

Young people hired under the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative in the province are teaching classes without supervision and some have not been paid last months’ stipends.

Anna Majavu
27 June 2022

Fleurhof housing no safe haven for the elderly

The development, touted as one of South Africa’s premier integrated residential projects, is failing to live up to the expectations of residents, who complain about shoddy workmanship.

Oupa Nkosi
27 June 2022

High court finds protest fee unconstitutional

The Johannesburg high court has ruled that the City of Johannesburg charging convenors a levy to provide traffic control and policing during demonstrations violates the right to protest.

Musawenkosi Cabe
24 June 2022

Castle of no hope for Cape Town’s homeless

After City officials seized tents, clothing, medication and other belongings during a so-called clean-up operation, the future of those living outside the castle is uncertain.

Matthew Hirsch
13 June 2022
→ View all news stories

EDITORIAL

New Frame steps back

After close to four years of intense work we must now reimagine how journalism can and should be done in a moment when the coils of social and political crisis squeeze ever more tightly.

New Frame
4 July 2022

Behind Day Zero is a metro that has failed to care

When the taps run dry in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, it will be the failures of the political class that plunge more than one million residents into disaster.

New Frame
24 June 2022

Abandon all hope that the ANC cares for us

With a government that fails to provide the much-needed relief available to a population that is increasingly desperate, the onus is on ordinary South Africans to hold the country together.

New Frame
10 June 2022

Decent and dignified healthcare for all

The proposed National Health Insurance scheme is, in principle, an excellent initiative. The problem is that no one in their right mind trusts the ANC to implement it.

New Frame
3 June 2022

Food sovereignty is a bulwark against desperation

As food prices and the cost of living soar globally, the crisis of hunger in South Africa is rapidly escalating. Action must be taken, and swiftly.

New Frame
27 May 2022

Let them have a ridiculously large luminous flag

The ANC is so out of touch with reality that it is now firmly ensconced in the realm of farce. The need for credible alternatives could hardly be more urgent.

New Frame
20 May 2022
→ View all editorial stories

ANALYSIS

Safa needs reforms, not simply a new leader

Regardless of who is elected president of South Africa’s football governing body on 25 June, the issues plaguing the game will persist because the leading candidates are part of the problem.

Njabulo Ngidi
22 June 2022

Harness Africa’s knowledge to curb deadly diseases

Homegrown solutions built on regional knowledge addressed the Aids and tuberculosis epidemics. The same approach can be applied to other health crises for the benefit of humanity.

Quarraisha Abdool Karim
14 June 2022

Senzo Meyiwa’s trial also puts language in the dock

South Africa’s judicial system uses mostly English, even though the country has 11 official languages. A lack of courtroom interpreters means African-language speakers are disadvantaged.

Zakeera Docrat and Russell H Kaschula
9 June 2022

Nato entrenches itself in Africa

The war in Libya, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s first major military operation on the continent, was part of a strategy to coalesce Western power and expansion into Africa.

Vijay Prashad
6 June 2022

UK forges ahead with its controversial refugee plan

The countdown has begun for asylum seekers in the United Kingdom who are destined to be sent to Rwanda, where they will have to remain while their applications are processed.

Jan Bornman
2 June 2022

The Taliban’s bid to make Afghan women invisible

Afghanistan’s tightening control on women is reversing many of their rights in that country, with women now ordered to wear veils, travel with men and stay out of schools.

Haris Zargar
2 June 2022
→ View all analysis stories

FEATURES

When you kiss nyaope, you marry it

The low-grade form of heroin continues to strip the youth of their future and the young women living in a drug house in Ekurhuleni say the police do not take them seriously.

Nation Nyoka
1 July 2022

Prisons are for profit, not our safety

In Abolition Geography, contemporary thinker Ruth Wilson Gilmore looks at crime, incarceration and alternatives that focus on social upliftment rather than the prison-industrial complex.

Christopher McMichael
1 July 2022

Beyond a biography: seeing CLR James afresh

John L Williams’ new book on the pan-African thinker is a marvel that offers a close, meticulous description of his life and thinking, untangling his transformations and inviting reacquaintance.

Paul Buhle
30 June 2022

Frantz Fanon’s revolutionary spirit lives on

A new collection of essays uses the works of the psychiatrist and radical political philosopher to explore how a community’s language and capacity for thought and wit threaten the state.

Raj Patel
29 June 2022

Cartoon | Paper pogrom

In this week’s cartoon, Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi torches the rights of thousands of Zimbabweans who have held South African residence permits for more than a decade.

Carlos Amato
28 June 2022

Sharp Read | Reflections on death

As a society, we are uncomfortable with death. But hidden in grief and tragedy is potential transcendence, if we allow ourselves to contemplate our own inevitable demise.

David Gorin
28 June 2022
→ View all features

CULTURE

At play in the realm of political assassinations

A drama from Limpopo tackles the disturbing reality of politicians killing each other for positions. It is a cry from young South Africans for this deplorable situation to change.

Anna Majavu
1 July 2022

Pierre Kwenders’ evolution will not be silent

The artist’s third album traverses a new musical terrain as he keeps on expanding his sound and working with friends from around the world.

Lloyd Gedye
30 June 2022

Artists in residence reflect their Makhanda life

Two collectives, Spaza and orangcosong, took up residencies at the National Arts Festival and created projects that speak to the town and the spaces they found themselves in.

Atiyyah Khan
29 June 2022

The good works of the Sir Alba Arts Academy

Dancers from the small academy in Etwatwa are winning locally and qualifying internationally, but will never compete overseas unless the institutions meant to support such initiatives actually do s…

Tonderai Chiyindiko
29 June 2022

Facing the beast of rape, femicide and child murder

Gender-based violence is highlighted in several heartbreaking performances at the Makhanda National Arts Festival.

Anna Majavu
28 June 2022

Long Read | Frida Kahlo: A ribbon around a bomb

In this extract from her recent lecture at the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, Helena Chávez Mac Gregor reckons with the memory and place of Frida Kahlo in our contemporary imagination.

Helena Chávez Mac Gregor
27 June 2022
→ View all culture stories

SPORT

Denis Odoi, a new star for the Black Stars

A good work ethic saw the Belgian-Ghanaian defender go further in his football career than expected. Now he has the chance to play for Ghana in the World Cup in Qatar.

Oluwashina Okeleji
30 June 2022

Next up for Zintle Mpupha? World Cups

The Springbok rugby player jumped at the chance to play league rugby in England, the first South African woman to do so. Now she has her sights set on the upcoming Sevens and 15s World Cups.

Ayanda Frances Felem
29 June 2022

Jennifer Cudjoe fights on and will not be silenced

The popular United States-based player is speaking out about the shameful state of women’s football in Ghana, where players have been marginalised in many ways for way too long.

Emmanuel Ayamga
27 June 2022

Test cricket is dead, but not for the eager Proteas

Even before the demise of this format of the game was predicted, the women’s team had little opportunity to experience and enjoy it. They are keen to change this while they still can.

Daniel Gallan
25 June 2022

The woman behind Ghana’s first skatepark

When Sandy Alibo visited in 2015, she connected with Accra’s small but vibrant surfing and skating community. It was enough for her to move there and help grow the sports in the country.

Lee Nxumalo
20 June 2022

Shining a light on Rashidi Yekini

The Nigerian footballer died young and in mysterious circumstances, keeping his legacy in the shadows. It’s been 10 years, though, and his skill and commitment to his country must be lauded.

Oluwashina Okeleji
13 June 2022
→ View all sport stories

PODCASTS