Articles for GroundUp Staff

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

Gay rights doctor narrowly avoids deportation to Uganda - Home Affairs accused of contempt of court

Release Paul Nsubuga Semugoma. That was the essence of a court order against the Minister of Home Affairs yesterday. Yet, Home Affairs proceeded to attempt to deport him after the court order was made. As of last night he was reportedly still in custody.

GroundUp Staff

News | 20 February 2014

Rights organisations contest reasons for Home Affairs directive

Director General of Home Affairs, Mkuseli Apleni, has given reasons why no new asylum seekers will be accepted at the Refugee Reception Office (RRO) in Cape Town.

Tariro Washinyira and GroundUp staff

News | 14 February 2014

Disturbing video of “street justice” given to Commission

A disturbing video taken with a cell phone shows a man being beaten up brutally in Khayelitsha. It was placed in evidence at the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry yesterday.

GroundUp Staff

News | 5 February 2014

Terry Bell “honoured and humbled” by support

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has condemned the suspension of Terry Bell's Inside Labour column that ran in Business Report for about 18 years.

GroundUp Staff, Terry Bell and COSATU

News | 29 January 2014

The week in political activism

This week, we cover the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, what’s happening in education and the patent wars.

Brent Meersman and GroundUp Staff

News | 22 January 2014

Leaked email: companies intended to campaign against government policy

A leaked email shows that a plan for a campaign to scuttle the South African government's draft intellectual property policy was about to proceed, despite a denial by the pharmaceutical industry that it had approved the campaign.

GroundUp Staff

News | 21 January 2014

How to hold local government accountable

The elections this year will be for our provincial and national governments. But it is our local government, our mayors and ward councillors, who are responsible for much of the service delivery that affects our day-to-day lives, such as refuse collection, sanitation and day clinics.

Fergus Turner and GroundUp Staff

News | 14 January 2014

South Africa is at an economic impasse - an interview with Mark Heywood

Mark Heywood has been one of the leaders of the Treatment Action Campaign since it started on 10 December 1998. He has also directed the AIDS Law Project since 1997 and its successor, SECTION27.

GroundUp Staff

News | 10 December 2013

Nelson Mandela: An interview with Zackie Achmat

Nelson Mandela has died. He inspired and led the struggle for freedom and against the oppression of apartheid. GroundUp interviewed Zackie Achmat about Mandela. In the 2000s, Achmat led the struggle for life-saving medicines for people with HIV.

GroundUp Staff

News | 6 December 2013

The week in political activism

This week we report on a petition to impeach the President, norms and standards for schools, TAC's march in Limpopo and the Cape Town Informal Settlements Coalition.

Brent Meersman and GroundUp staff

News | 4 December 2013

Tried twice for expired asylum papers: bureaucratic nightmare for Zimbabwean farm workers

The hardships and inconsistencies of the South African refugee system are illustrated by what has happened to Zimbabwean asylum seekers who work on a farm near Vanwyksdorp, a tiny rural town in the Western Cape, more than four hours drive from Cape Town, that is only served by gravel roads.

Tariro Washinyira and GroundUp staff

News | 28 November 2013

Improving teaching and schools: an interview with the leaders of Equal Education

Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, is expected to adopt minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure at the end of this week.

GroundUp Staff

News | 27 November 2013

Life-saving TB drug costs R676 per pill!

Over 15,000 people were diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa last year. The risk of death for people with ordinary treatable TB is high. But it is much higher for patients whose illness cannot be treated using the standard TB medicines.

Koketso Moeti and GroundUp staff

News | 26 November 2013

A law journal for the rest of us

All people are affected by the law but few understand it. Lawyers and judges speak and write using complicated language. Nearly any non-lawyer who picks up a law journal would find it dry and unintelligible. Enter the People's Law Journal, a publication that aims to change this.

GroundUp Staff

News | 19 November 2013