28 February 2014
The Eastern Cape Health Department has instructed hospitals to give an untested medicine to patients with tuberculosis. It has not received ethical approval to proceed with this clinical trial. Now it appears the project has been scrapped, apparently after the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) asked the national government to intervene.
GroundUp Staff
Lesley Knight has been teaching at Edendale Primary School for 27 years. She has witnessed some of the worst incidents of gang violence in Manenberg.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
Yet another vigilante incident took place in Endlovini, Khayelitsha, at 5pm on 20 February on the open field at the corner of Mew Way and Steve Biko Road.
Adam Armstrong
Manenberg is a township in the Cape Flats outside Gugulethu. The apartheid government originally created it to relocate Coloured families who had been forcibly removed from their homes. Today it often makes the news because of gang violence.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
On 24 February 2014, Uganda passed legislation that criminalises homosexuality. Paul Semugoma, a gay Ugandan activist who recently gained temporary residence in South Africa, says that the legislation\xe2\x80\x99s impact will be extensive among all Ugandan society. The legislation, according to Paul, is more about consolidating President Yoweri Museveni\xe2\x80\x99s power ahead of the 2016 Ugandan elections than about dealing with any meaningful social ill.
Jonathan Dockney
Cape Town Pride 2014 (CTP) takes place from 21 February to 1 March. The annual festival aims to celebrate gay rights in South Africa. This year\xe2\x80\x99s theme is \xe2\x80\x9cuniting cultures in Cape Town\xe2\x80\x9d. However, people from communities around Cape Town have said that they feel CTP excludes them and the serious issues affecting them as gay people.
Jonathan Dockney and GroundUp Staff
The Cape Town High Court has overturned its order that would have forced the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to provide safety and security for five Manenberg schools.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
Paul Kasonkomona, a human rights activists working in Zambia, has been acquitted after almost a year of legal proceedings.
Jonathan Dockney
Two teachers at Vela-Langa Primary school in Upington are facing a disciplinary hearing today and tomorrow for teaching their grade two classes in SeTswana and Afrikaans.
Selby Nomnganga
A 47 year old Congo-Brazzaville man has been told to leave South Africa though there is a search warrant (avis de recherche) out for him in his own country.
Tariro Washinyira
\xe2\x80\x9cThis is my passion — what I\xe2\x80\x99ve known half my life,\xe2\x80\x9d fulminates Constance Mogale, the director the Land Action Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA), from her fifth floor office in Khotso House, Johannesburg.
Joshua Maserow
In March 2013, Dr Patrobas Mufubenga, a malaria expert, was unanimously appointed a member of the Developing Country NGO Delegation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria for a two-year renewable term. It is a key position at arguably the most important health funding mechanism in the world.
GroundUp Staff
This week we have reports on civil society\xe2\x80\x99s response to the budget and a documentary hosted by Sonke Gender Justice.
Compiled by Brent Meersman
Public outrage followed after protestors died in January while demonstrating against problems with water service delivery in Madibeng. Until then the state\xe2\x80\x99s actions in Madibeng produced PR, but failed to lead to any meaningful engagement with those directly affected by the failures of the municipality.
Koketso Moeti
The battle against Uganda\xe2\x80\x99s anti-homosexual law is not over. Health and HIV may be the new frontier to confront homophobia explains Dr Andrew Tucker.
Andrew Tucker
After dropping Audio 3D in June 2012, \xe2\x80\x98boom bap\xe2\x80\x99 rapper Sizwe \xe2\x80\x98Reason\xe2\x80\x99 Moeketsi simply disappeared from the game.
Zethu Gqola
Roberto Millan