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
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’s impact will be extensive among all Ugandan society. The legislation, according to Paul, is more about consolidating President Yoweri Museveni’s power ahead of the 2016 Ugandan elections than about dealing with any meaningful social ill.
Jonathan Dockney
News | 27 February 2014
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
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
News | 26 February 2014
Paul Kasonkomona, a human rights activists working in Zambia, has been acquitted after almost a year of legal proceedings.
Jonathan Dockney
News | 26 February 2014
This week we have reports on civil society’s response to the budget and a documentary hosted by Sonke Gender Justice.
Compiled by Brent Meersman
News | 26 February 2014
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
News | 25 February 2014
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
News | 25 February 2014
“This is my passion -- what I’ve known half my life,” fulminates Constance Mogale, the director the Land Action Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA), from her fifth floor office in Khotso House, Johannesburg.
Joshua Maserow
News | 25 February 2014
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
News | 25 February 2014
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
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
News | 24 February 2014
As an investigative journalist I’ve come face-to-face with grifters. I’ve interviewed fraudsters and studied sociopathy extensively. I’m fascinated by psychopaths and the peculiarities of the brain that make them different to the rest of us. Trying to understand the mental workings of good and evil is a hobby of mine.
Mandy de Waal
News | 21 February 2014
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
On January 17, Anthea Qonga was told by South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) officials at the Mitchell’s Plain branch that she cannot receive her grant money because its managers were unavailable to sign the papers.
Pharie Sefali
News | 20 February 2014