While there are significant unmet health needs in many parts of South Africa, they are particularly acute in historically disadvantaged rural areas.
Tom Yates
Opinion | 3 December 2013
The bell rings for break time, triggering a mad rush for the toilet. Many learners won’t make it in time. After all, “how do you expect 550 boys to share six toilets … when there is only one break?”
Brad Brockman
Opinion | 26 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
“When we called Disaster Risk Management on Saturday, they sent one man … He said he would be back in a couple of hours, with provisions for a hundred people, including sand bags and stones to protect houses from further water damage, as well as food. They never came back,” says Luthando Tokota a community advocate with the Social Justice Coalition.
Delphine Pedeboy
News | 20 November 2013
The Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) says there is no need for the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into policing.
Pharie Sefali
News | 20 November 2013
On the edge of the university hamlet of Grahamstown, there’s a municipal dump where people discard trash. It’s far enough out of town to not smell the stench – or for most locals not to be reminded of the haunting plight of the poor who subsist off the waste.
Mandy de Waal
Feature | 20 November 2013
The O'Regan/Pikoli Commision of Inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha is to go ahead after a Constitutional Court ruling last week. GroundUp went to the streets of Khayelitsha to gauge people’s reaction to the ruling.
Nwabisa Pondoyi
Opinion | 9 October 2013
On September 30, the government announced the second increase this year in disability grants, old age pensions, care dependency grants and war veterans' pensions. These increases will come in addition to the child support grant and grant-in-aid increases, which were already budgeted for in March. Although the increase is only R10, it will equate to a R41 million increase in government spending per month.
Gabrielle Kelly
Opinion | 7 October 2013
Civil society organisations and communities are rejoicing after the Constitutional Court unanimously ruled for the O’Regan/Pikoli Commission of Inquiry into policing to go ahead.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 2 October 2013
Yesterday, the Constitutional Court dismissed a request by the Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa and others to hear a direct appeal against the appointment of the O’Regan/Pikoli Commission of Inquiry.
Jacques van Heerden
Opinion | 2 October 2013
It caused a controversy last year, leaving many people wondering how exactly it would work. But what was supposed to be the closure and reconstruction of GF Jooste Hospital this year, will now only happen in 2018.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 1 October 2013
Since the Peninsula School Feeding Association (PSFA) lost a tender by the Department of Education’s National School Nutrition Programme to deliver a school feeding service, two schools are complaining that the service has decreased, and learners are hungry.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 26 September 2013
The matter against the twenty-one Social Justice Coalition (SJC) activists, who took part in a civil disobedience action last week, has been postponed to 23 October 2013. The 21 activists appeared before the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court this morning.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
Brief | 18 September 2013
On 18 September 2013, twenty-one Social Justice Coalition activists will appear in the Cape Town Magistrate court for contravening provisions of the Regulation of Gatherings Act.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
Opinion | 18 September 2013
“We demand accountable leadership”, “Failure to resolve stock-outs = human rights violation”, “Limpopo Department of Health – Failed promises” read placards at the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) march in solidarity with provinces that continue to be plagued by finding essential medicines are out of stock.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 16 September 2013