Economy

Over a million children fall through foster care cracks

Over a million orphans and abused, neglected, and abandoned children in South Africa are falling through the cracks of an overburdened foster care system.

Joyce Xi

Feature | 12 November 2014

It takes a worker 100 years to earn what a director earns in one year

In 1993, it would have taken the average labourer 40 years to earn what the average executive director of a top company in South Africa earned in a year.

Alide Dasnois

News | 12 November 2014

Current struggles of historic school that Biko attended

Forbes Grant Senior Secondary School is not safe. The flimsy fence structure around the school is easily breakable. On the school’s perimeter, the fence has gaping holes in many places. In some parts, there is no fence at all.

Daniel Linde

Opinion | 12 November 2014

Call for national minimum wage of R5,000 a month

“We would like the government to legislate a national minimum wage of R4,500 so that the private sector cannot get away with murder,” Langa resident Fezile Olifant told a parliamentary hearing on the national minimum wage in Gugulethu at the weekend.

Katy Scott

News | 11 November 2014

Farm worker activists acquitted

Four activists and farm workers, arrested two years ago while marching in the Koo valley outside Montagu, have been acquitted.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 10 November 2014

After hundreds of jobs lost, Free State promises to fix impassable road

Four years after a R100-million provincial government contract crashed in the Free State – driving a large civil engineering company into bankruptcy and rendering a major road impassable – the province has finally taken action to repair the disaster.

Barbara Maregele (with amaBhungane)

News | 7 November 2014

Marikana: World Bank loan undermines Lonmin’s arguments, says academic

During the hearings of the Marikana Commission, Lonmin executives said the company had not been able to afford to keep its 2006 promise to build 5,500 new houses for workers. Yet a year later, in 2007, the International Finance Corporation had made finance of US$150 million available to Lonmin - part of it for a "large-scale community development programme".

Alide Dasnois

News | 7 November 2014

Marikana: Lonmin’s broken promises

Lonmin has broken its promises to build housing for employees, say the Marikana Commission's evidence leaders.

Alide Dasnois

News | 5 November 2014

Making a living selling smileys

Nombulelo Mtibe eeks out a living selling smileys. And no, a smiley is not an emoticon on your phone!

Pharie Sefali

News | 3 November 2014

Putting bread - and chicken - on the table

Nosisa Bhomela is one of 12 Khayelitsha women who slaughter, pluck and clean chickens in exchange for chicken heads and feet to sell and take home for their meals.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 28 October 2014

Government Adjusts the Budget: Why it Matters for Service Delivery

The Adjustment Budget got very little coverage last week, but it is vital to understand it, explain Carlene van der Westhuizen and Thokozile Madonko.

Carlene van der Westhuizen and Thokozile Madonko

Analysis | 27 October 2014

Lonmin’s Bermuda Triangle

Platinum mining giant Lonmin could have found the money to meet rock drillers’ pay demands instead of shifting funds between subsidiaries, possibly to avoid tax.

GroundUp staff

News | 16 October 2014

Lonmin stops press conference on its finances

Cape Town-based think-tank Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), which was stopped by Lonmin from holding a press conference about the platinum company’s accounts, intends to hold the conference “very soon”.

GroundUp staff

News | 10 October 2014

Belhar students’ fee battle

With less than a month to go before exams, students at Northlink College’s Belhar campus are worried that they will not be allowed to write because of problems with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

Zintle Swana

News | 8 October 2014

National Health Insurance: struggling to be born

South Africa’s bid to provide universal health care through National Health Insurance (NHI) could fail if government does not learn lessons from other countries, a conference heard last week.

Ian Broughton

News | 6 October 2014

TAC plans fundraising drive as crunch time looms

Even though the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) faces the possibility of closing down due to a lack of funding, it says there is no need to worry yet.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 1 October 2014