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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
Instead of fulfilling its vision to “enhance the quality of health”, the Health Professions Council (HPCSA) tried to stop details of the health crisis in the Eastern Cape being made public.
GroundUp Staff
News | 4 November 2013
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is a statutory body that regulates health workers. It registers doctors and disciplines them if they do something wrong. If it had to perform its tasks properly, patients would benefit. Instead, according to several organisations and doctors, the HPCSA’s inefficiency hurts patients.
Delphine Pedeboy and GroundUp Staff
News | 30 October 2013
Khayelitsha is officially turning 30. Plans to build Khayelitsha were announced by the notorious Minister of Co-operation and Development, Dr Piet Koornhof, in 1983. By 1985, the suburb Site C had 30,000 people. *
Pharie Sefali and GroundUp staff
News | 16 October 2013
G4S is the world’s largest international security firm. It has a big presence in South Africa. Employee relations are strained at the University of Cape Town following the transfer of three G4S security guards to other G4S sites in Cape Town in September.
GroundUp Staff
News | 16 October 2013
89-year-old President Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980, is set to lead the country for yet another five years.
Tariro Washinyira, Mpho Mabhena and GroundUp Staff
News | 6 August 2013
Clayton (name changed) is a Zimbabwean man who injured his leg in a stampede at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) foreshore offices in Cape Town on Monday.
Tariro Washinyira and GroundUp Staff
News | 3 July 2013
Equal Education (EE) filed papers on Monday to re-open the case against the Minister for not publishing minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure.
GroundUp Staff
News | 12 June 2013