Articles for GroundUp Staff

Confess or else! Threat in Angy Peter trial

Dustin Kramer, Deputy General Secretary of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), says he has received a threatening SMS, demanding that he gets Angy Peter and Isaac Mbadu to confess to the murder of Rowan du Preez.

GroundUp Staff

News | 20 June 2014

Plan to extend unemployment payouts

More than 8.5 million people are receiving payments from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. If a bill before parliament’s labour committee is passed, benefits could be extended to a year.

GroundUp Staff

News | 17 June 2014

Unanswered questions about Strand evictions

Ten days after several hundred people were evicted from the Nomzamo (Lwandle) informal settlement near Strand, there is still no clarity about why they were removed.

GroundUp Staff

News | 11 June 2014

Miserable day for people who lost homes, but baby rumoured to be dead is alive

It’s cold and raining in Cape Town tonight. Ice particles formed on the ground outside the Nomzamo Community Hall in Strand where hundreds of residents, whose homes were demolished over the last two days, are sheltering.

Pharie Sefali and GroundUp staff

News | 4 June 2014

Dudley Lee, who successfully sued government, has died

Dudley Lee died at the age of 68 on 21 May in Victoria Hospital. He successfully sued the Minister of Correctional Services because he became ill with tuberculosis (TB) while awaiting trial in Pollsmoor prison.

GroundUp Staff

News | 23 May 2014

Guide to being tried for murder in South Africa

Perhaps you have been following the Angy Peter murder trial closely. Or maybe you have been watching the Oscar Pistorius one. Like us, you have lots of questions about how our legal system works. We asked a lawyer to answer them.

GroundUp Staff

News | 16 May 2014

Ceres community mobilises against homophobia

When David Olyn was tortured and murdered in the idyllic Western Cape town of Ceres just because he was gay, the town's residents came together to fight homophobia.

GroundUp Staff

News | 25 April 2014

Zackie Achmat says why he won’t vote ANC

In an interview with GroundUp, former TAC leader and current director of Ndifuna Ukwazi Zackie Achmat said this time he will not be voting for the ANC in the 7 May elections.

GroundUp Staff

News | 24 April 2014

Compulsory service in non-model C government schools for all teaching graduates

Yesterday the Department of Education issued new regulations that make it compulsory for all new teachers to teach for one year in non-model C government schools. This is with immediate effect. It applies to graduates of all teaching colleges and post-graduate university courses in 2014.

GroundUp Staff

News | 1 April 2014

NEHAWU protests in City

About 1,000 to 1,500 members of the National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union marched through town on 27 March to the offices of the Western Cape government.

GroundUp Staff

Brief | 27 March 2014

Fighting the white plague

Today is World TB Day. More people die of tuberculosis in South Africa than from any other disease. The HIV epidemic is to a large degree responsible for that. Dealing effectively with the one epidemic typically improves the outcomes of the other.

GroundUp Staff

News | 24 March 2014

Why President Zuma must go

Many South Africans from all walks of life and across the political spectrum are calling for the resignation and impeachment of President Jacob Zuma. In the light of a thoroughly researched and meticulously presented report by the Public Protector into the Nkandla matter, these calls seem more than justified.

GroundUp Staff

News | 20 March 2014

Province tries to run illegal trial with quack medicine

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

News | 28 February 2014

Is Cape Town Pride serious about gay rights?

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’s theme is “uniting cultures in Cape Town”. 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

News | 27 February 2014

Why is there a homophobe on the Global Fund?

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

News | 24 February 2014

Ugandan doctor, released by Home Affairs, thanks South African activists

Paul Semugoma is free and can live and work in South Africa. This followed a dramatic day of court action and negotiations between lawyers representing Semugoma and the Department of Home Affairs.

GroundUp Staff

News | 20 February 2014