GroundUp 6 -12 November is published

6 November 2013

Featured Story

Health Professions Council tried to stop exposure of Eastern Cape health crisis

News: Instead of fulfilling its vision to \xe2\x80\x9cenhance the quality of health\xe2\x80\x9d, the Health Professions Council (HPCSA) tried to stop details of the health crisis in the Eastern Cape being made public.

GroundUp Staff

Over R1 billion in fund - yet apartheid victims still await compensation

News: The President\xe2\x80\x99s Fund was established in 2003 under President Thabo Mbeki to compensate apartheid victims. It has accumulated over a billion rands. Nevertheless, many apartheid victims who were identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to receive compensation from this fund, have still received nothing. Some have died waiting.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Opinion

Was South Africa sold out in 1994?

Opinion: Ronnie Kasrils argued in the Guardian in June that the ANC in 1994 accepted a “devil's pact … ” that tied South Africa's economy “to the neoliberal global formula and market fundamentalism …”. Here Rob Petersen explains why he thinks Kasrils is mistaken. This is the text of a speech given at an Equal Education event on 31 October.

Rob Petersen

Ambrosini is wrong about cancer

Opinion: Receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis in your early 50s is frightening. It is difficult to imagine what Mario Ambrosini is going through. That he wishes to beat cancer and that he is disappointed with medical science because it offers him so little hope is entirely understandable.

Nathan Geffen, GroundUp Editor

A changed world requires ditching dogma

Opinion: Trade unions the world over are embattled and apparently finding difficulty adapting to the changed circumstances of this century. To varying degrees they react to challenges in the manner of decades past, without apparently realising the potential they have to influence the way forward in what is a changed world.

Terry Bell

Science

Genetically modified foods: let the science speak

Science: Genetically modified food has become a highly politicised, emotional issue with heated arguments and accusations between those for and against their use.

Kerry Gordon

News

The week in political activism

Activist Beat: This week we have reports from Corruption Watch, the Social Justice Coalition, the International Organisation for Migration and the Aids Rights Alliance for Southern Africa.

Delphine Pedeboy

Planet Savage: an extract from Tuelo Gabonewe's book

Book extract: Tuelo Gabonewe's is an exciting, new young voice in South African literature. His first novel, Planet Savage, is narrated by Leungo, a nine-year old with an unusual, often sacrosanct, outlook on life.

Tuelo Gabonewe

Angolan who grew up in SA risks being sent back

News: Jesus Espirito Do Santos has lived in South Africa since he was three. He is at risk of being sent back to Angola where he was born. Yet he only speaks English and Afrikaans and can\xe2\x80\x99t speak Portuguese.

Tariro Washinyira

Problems with Home Affairs program to make it easier for Zimbabweans to work

News: In 2010, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) formulated an easier and quicker way for Zimbabweans to obtain their work permits and stay in the country legally. But it has not gone smoothly.

Nwabisa Pondoyi

Cartoon

EFF Cerberus

Roberto Millan