GroundUp met with a group of young hip-hop and spaza music makers. The group complain that they have been at it for three years, but don’t get any support from local businesses and government.
Pharie Sefali
News | 4 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
On 24 November, 17-year-old Musa Batyi was found at Better Life, Philippi, in a pool of blood. He had been stabbed once. He was in excruciating pain and losing blood. A short while later he died.
Nwabisa Pondoyi
News | 3 December 2013
At a mass meeting on 28 November 2013, academics and activists from dozens of organisations, social movements, and local citizen groups from eight provinces came together as Awethu!.
Koketso Moeti
News | 2 December 2013
Nthikeng Mohlele first came to national attention with his debut novel, "The Scent of Bliss" (Kwela, 2008). His new novel, "Small Things", published earlier this year (2013), will not disappoint his admirers.
Nthikeng Mohlele
News | 2 December 2013
South Africa’s anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment programme is often hailed as one of the most important public health successes. It is the world’s largest ARV programme, with over two million patients initiated on treatment. But it has serious problems: many patients often go without medicines because of stockouts.
Koketso Moeti
News | 28 November 2013
On 14 December, the Desmond Tutu Foundation will host a beauty pageant called Mr and Miss Gay Ekasi in Salt River. Most participants will be from Khayelitsha and other Cape Town townships. Does the popularity of events like these mean it is becoming easier to be gay or lesbian in Cape Town’s largest township?
Pharie Sefali
News | 28 November 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
This week we have reports from Corruption Watch, Equal Education and SWEAT.
Brent Meersman
News | 27 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
Starting with her first novel, Red Ink (2007), a psychological thriller,
Angela Makholwa occupies an interesting space in South African writing - a
black woman writing crime fiction.
Angela Makholwa
News | 25 November 2013
Several houses in Gugulethu were damaged by the heavy rainfall this weekend. Hombazi Fiphaza, a resident from Kanana Square informal settlement, said, “We go through the same thing everytime there is heavy rainfall … What pains me the most is watching the children suffer because of it, and there is nothing you can do to protect them from it.”
Nwabisa Pondoyi
News | 21 November 2013
44-year-old Nomfundo (not her real name) says for the past 20 years she has lived in the informal settlement outside Capricorn, Muizenberg. She always dreads rain as it comes with the possibility of floods.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 21 November 2013