A complete disregard for the no-smoking notices and rules on Metrorail trains and at stations by many commuters poses a daily health hazard to thousands of their fellow travellers. And Metrorail appears powerless to enforce the law.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 3 August 2015
In 2011 President Jacob Zuma promised sanitary pads for girls and women who cannot afford them. Nearly five years later, the only sign that this promise is being kept is an attempt by Deputy Minister in the presidency Buti Manamela to raise awareness about the issue through a series of well publicised events.
Pharie Sefali
News | 30 July 2015
Just this week alone six children have been referred to the Fikelela Children's Centre in Mandela Park, Khayelitsha. The institution’s head social worker, Kate Brydon, says the number of abandoned children being referred to Fikelela has risen.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 30 July 2015
The Zip Zap Circus School dome in the city centre was packed on Saturday afternoon as the circus put on a show to raise funds for severely disabled six-year-old Jack Bain.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 28 July 2015
Nomahlubi Mbulu is 47. She lives in a house in Old Crossroads. She has three children, a 12-year-old girl, a 17-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old son. Her last born, Lilitha, and her eldest, Sibusiso, are both disabled. She is struggling to cope.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 21 July 2015
Over 200 young people in Khayelitsha marched to Harare Police at 11am today (6 July 2015) to demand the closure of Osi’s Place, a local tavern.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
News | 6 July 2015
There are massive medicine stockouts in the public health system. These are mainly due to failures within the state system, not external problems such as global supply shortages that Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi has claimed are primarily responsible. Here’s the proof.
Ashleigh FurlongNathan Geffen
News | 30 June 2015
“It will be like an emotional ambulance.” This is the vision of 28-year-old Banetsi Mphunga: a mobile psychology clinic in Khayelitsha which will see kids in the township receive free help dealing with psychological trauma.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 26 June 2015
A high-profile court showdown is looming between a medical scheme and the patient activist group, Treatment Action Campaign, as well as about a dozen other organisations. Its outcome will have significant repercussions for what schemes offer their members.
Shadi Garman and GroundUp Staff
News | 19 June 2015
Luxolo “Nana” Ntsantsa was left paralysed from the waist down after a gunman killed his mother and left him for dead in their small shack in Site C, Khayelitsha nearly a year ago.
Barbara Maregele
Feature | 15 June 2015
Human rights lawyers have been engaged for ten years in a bid to secure massive damages for former gold miners who suffer from silicosis and TB. As the case heads for the courts, the mining industry is scrambling to offer its own and much less comprehensive solution.
Pete Lewis
Analysis | 11 June 2015
Benny Malakoane, MEC for Health in the Free State, came under fire while sitting in the audience at the opening of the 7th South African AIDS Conference in Durban on Tuesday evening. Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) chairperson, Nkhensani Mavasa, delivering one of the opening speeches, called for him to be dismissed.
GroundUp Staff
Brief | 10 June 2015
South Africa's first Children's Hospice and Palliative Care Association will be launched later this year, according to the founder of Iris House Children's Hospice Sue van der Linde.
Barbara Maregele
News | 9 June 2015
Drug shortages in South Africa’s health facilities have become a crisis. Today we report that Stanger Hospital and health facilities in Ilembe District KwaZulu-Natal are out of stock of over 200 products between them.
Ashleigh Furlong and Nathan Geffen
Feature | 6 June 2015
South Africa needs black people to donate their bone marrow. According to the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) there are more than 67,000 donors and only 4,100 are black.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 5 June 2015
Mother’s Day has come and gone with the usual emphasis on happy mothers, loving families and children bringing breakfast in bed to their moms. For many this picture is a good reflection of what happens at home. But for some mothers this picture is far from accurate.
Adrienne Dodds
Opinion | 1 June 2015