Feature
Spotlight on social grants: Net1 - the company that runs the grant payment system
The South African government’s massive social security payment system is managed by a subsidiary of Net1, a company listed on stock exchanges in the United States and Johannesburg.
GroundUp Staff
Feature | 7 October 2015
Spotlight on social grants: How grants are used to back loans
Some social grant beneficiaries are so deeply in debt that much of each month’s grant goes to paying back a loan.
GroundUp Staff
Feature | 7 October 2015
Spotlight on social grants: How the system works
It’s 6:30am on a cold Wednesday morning and about 50 people, mostly women with babies, are already queuing outside the South African Social Security Agency office in the Delft library to apply for their child support grants.
GroundUp Staff
Feature | 7 October 2015
How bureaucracy is delaying Virginia’s dream of being a doctor
Virginia Sibanda, like thousands of youth across South Africa in November 2014, was hunched over a desk, pen in hand, taking her matric exams. Her years of accumulated academic trophies and certificates culminated in these papers. She had attended tutoring sessions, practiced the past exams, and had applied to universities to pursue her dream of studying medicine.
Sarita Pillay
Feature | 1 October 2015
Wolwerivier gets its first taste of violence
It was a weekend of flaring emotions and violence at Wolwerivier relocation area. On Friday, residents protested against the City’s relocation of strangers into empty units sought by the community to alleviate the overcrowding at the settlement. Rubber bullets were fired into crowds containing mostly women and children. People were arrested and beaten when they refused to disperse.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 21 September 2015
Big Issue vendor goes the extra mile
Simphiwe Mabuwa (45) goes beyond the call of duty as a Big Issue and Funny Money salesman at the intersection between Newlands Avenue and Dean Street in Newlands. Over the five years he has worked in the area, he has also taken on the role of community watchman and good friend to many passers-by.
Pasqua Heard
Feature | 16 September 2015
Changing your gender in South Africa
“I have some very vivid memories of when I was really young, say four or five years old, my grandmother would dress me in women’s clothing and say, ‘Look at my granddaughter’, but also in a playful way,' says Sandile Ndelu, a transgender woman, who is a law student at UCT.
Ashleigh Furlong
Feature | 15 September 2015
Historic pigeon race unites fanciers
At dawn on Saturday 12 September more than 15,000 homing pigeons were released from Hanover in the Northern Cape, kicking off the largest single pigeon race in South African history. The birds burst into the air and began circling to orientate themselves. Within ten minutes they had vanished, setting off on the 600 km journey home.
Kimon de Greef
Feature | 14 September 2015
“If my baby is dead, why don’t they just tell me?”
After recovering from a difficult labour, Nolitha Kamana went to look for her baby in the hospital wards, only to find the child in the mortuary. Her story is one of scores collected by the Treatment Action Campaign highlighting problems in maternity and obstetrics units in Cape Town. GroundUp's Mary-Anne Gontsana spoke to some of the women.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
Feature | 9 September 2015