News That Matters

GroundUp is a South African non-profit news agency that publishes human-rights focused, public interest journalism. Our content is free to read and republish.

Our focus

GroundUp’s work is inspired by the human rights in the South African Constitution, including housing, education, health, safety, justice, food and dignity. These rights remain out of reach for most people in our country. 

With dwindling budgets, newsrooms are shrinking, especially at the community level. As a result, the stories of everyday South Africans and their struggles get lost. We aim to fill the gaps. 

Our journalism shows the reality of human rights in daily life. Our reporters across the country highlight the most pressing issues faced by vulnerable people and underreported communities. We report on the work of activists who go against the grain. We investigate and expose the state and private-sector failures that impact people’s rights.

We report on:

  • Housing
  • Social grants
  • Health
  • Public Transport (including PRASA)
  • The Justice System
  • Workers’ Rights
  • Prisons
  • Food security
  • Water
  • Environmental Rights

GroundUp does not publish pseudoscience (such as AIDS denialism, climate change denialism, vaccination denialism) or bigotry (such as racism, sexism and homophobia).

Our Impact

Increased media presence pressures government entities to deliver on their mandate. But the collapse of community media has left much of the country uncovered. 

Our reporting often results in direct responses by government entities to particular problems. Our work has seen criminal charges against corrupt or incompetent officials, cancelled corrupt tenders, and structural policy changes in government departments.

We have won several awards for our work. Our investigations into corruption at the National Lottery Commission and the hair-raising prison escape of Thabo Bester have won the Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism, the Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity and the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award.

Who funds us?

GroundUp started in April 2012 as a joint project of Community Media Trust and the University of Cape Town's Centre for Social Science Research. In June 2020, we became an independent, stand-alone non-profit company. 

We rely solely on donations to do our work. We do not promote any political party or agendas of our donors. 

Much of our funding is from institutional donors. But we need more of our readers to support us. Our readers give anything from once-off R100 donations to R10,000 every year.

Donate

Resources

GroundUp displays the “FAIR” stamp of the Press Council of South Africa on all our web pages, indicating our commitment to adhere to the Code of Ethics for Print and Online Media which prescribes that our reportage is truthful, accurate and fair. Should you wish to complain about our news coverage, please lodge a complaint on the Press Council’s website, www.presscouncil.org.za or email the complaint to [email protected]. Contact the Press Council on 011 4843612.