Articles for Nathan Geffen

Gauteng hospital shambles

A doctor at South Africa’s largest hospital, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) in Soweto, has described chaotic planning and management that is putting patient care at risk.

Nathan Geffen and Ben Stanwix

News | 4 May 2015

Good and bad approaches to upgrading informal settlements

In February the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit (ALIU) dismantled a family’s shack in Mfuleni. This acrimonious incident raises important questions about how informal settlements are to be upgraded.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 9 March 2015

ANC calls for “deregistration of TAC”

The ANC Youth League Free State has called for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to be deregistered. This follows TAC's "Fire Benny" campaign, which calls for the dismissal of the province's Health MEC Benny Malakoane.

Nathan Geffen and GroundUp Staff

News | 19 February 2015

Commuters must organise to improve Metrorail

The Metrorail website claims that it carries up to two million passengers per day countrywide. Finding a reliable estimate of how many people commute daily using trains in the Western Cape is challenging. Estimates range from 300,000 to over 700,000. Whatever the number, a lot of people, mostly working class, depend on trains to get to and from work.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 19 February 2015

Role models and perseverance: how Kenny Solomon became South Africa’s first grandmaster

In December Kenny Solomon crossed the final hurdle needed to achieve what no other South African has. He won the African Individual Championship to become South Africa’s first chess grandmaster. Along the way he beat Egyptian grandmaster Ahmed Adly.

Nathan Geffen

News | 18 January 2015

Responding rationally to Ebola

Tightening border controls is not the way to prevent an outbreak of Ebola in South Africa, writes Nathan Geffen.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 16 October 2014

A deadly disease that demands huge investment

No doubt you’ve heard there’s a disease about that is infectious, difficult to treat and that has an extremely high death rate.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 15 October 2014

Tim Noakes and the responsibility of experts

One of the major medical advances of the last few decades has been the two-dose vaccine for children against measles. A responsible doctor or public health expert would not do anything to jeopardise public confidence in the vaccine. Yet this is exactly what UCT's Professor Tim Noakes did this past weekend, writes Nathan Geffen.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 27 August 2014

Lwandle: too much acrimony, too little understanding

The house demolitions and evictions that took place in Strand last week highlighted the class and race fractures that run through our country.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 12 June 2014

An interesting life: a chat with World War II veteran Simmy Lewis

Simmy Lewis is 96 and a South African veteran of World War II. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day, GroundUp spoke to Lewis about the war, his views on race and living with increasing frailty.

Introduction written by Nathan Geffen. Camera and video editing by Neo Sithole

News | 2 June 2014

Porta potties hit Bishopscourt

Following a campaign in Constantia earlier this week, the Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement took their protest against portable toilets to Bishopscourt today.

Johnnie Isaac and Nathan Geffen

Feature | 30 April 2014

Mbeki nostalgia

As we head into elections, the ANC boasts about successes in the fight against AIDS and South Africa’s large antiretroviral treatment programme.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 3 April 2014

Beyond HIV: How we die in South Africa

Reports published this month by Stats SA and the Medical Research Council (MRC) provide interesting information on how South Africans are dying.

Nathan Geffen

News | 1 April 2014

South Africans living longer but drug-resistant TB a threat

Two government reports published in March show that the nation’s health is improving dramatically, but more people are getting sick from forms of tuberculosis that are difficult to treat.

Nathan Geffen

News | 31 March 2014

Gugulethu chess rising

Once the playing begins, all that's to be heard is the clanging of pieces and the thumping of clocks signalling that it's "your move". Today, chess took centre stage at the Gugulethu Sports Centre.

Nathan Geffen

News | 15 March 2014

Are sugar daddies bad for your health?

“Sugar daddies destroy lives” say billboard adverts in Kwazulu-Natal in big bold black and red letters. The same message is echoed in radio adverts played across the country.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 11 March 2014