Society

Terry Bell “honoured and humbled” by support

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has condemned the suspension of Terry Bell's Inside Labour column that ran in Business Report for about 18 years.

GroundUp Staff, Terry Bell and COSATU

News | 29 January 2014

Mother and daughter: alive, productive and healthy on antiretrovirals

Nandipha Madolo, from Khayelitsha’s Litha Park, has experienced much in her life, with HIV playing a major part. She watched her brother die from meningitis due to HIV. Her HIV-positive husband abused her. Her youngest daughter contracted HIV, and Madolo found out that she too was HIV-positive. But today Madolo has a healthy daughter, a steady job, and she is a public speaker.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 29 January 2014

Pharma plot has consequences for the blind

If a secret plot by foreign pharmaceutical companies and their local subsidiaries to delay South Africa's IP policy process until after the elections succeeds, non-pharmaceutical sectors will also be affected.

Marcus Low

Opinion | 29 January 2014

Over 40 degrees but not a heat wave in Upington

Temperatures in Upington in the Northern Cape have risen to over 40 degrees. But it’s still not an official heatwave for this scorching hot part of the country.

Selby Nomnganga

Brief | 28 January 2014

Young Blood: an extract from Sifiso Mzobe’s novel

South Africa had been waiting for a novel like Young Blood when it won the coveted Sunday Times Fiction Prize in 2011. Community newspaper journalist Sifiso Mzobe set his debut novel in his hometown of Umlazi, Durban. It is a racy, fast-paced, stark narrative told from the side of the railway tracks where crime is part and parcel of everyday township life.

Sifiso Mzobe

News | 28 January 2014

Cape Flats artists launch magazine

A group of young artists are putting their creativity on the map. They have launched a magazine called Motswako, which means ‘mixture’ or ‘diversity’.

Pharie Sefali

News | 27 January 2014

Commissioner klaps SAPS for inefficiency

At the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, the morning got off to a rocky start for the SAPS legal counsel with Chairperson Justice Kate O’Regan again verbally reprimanding them.

Adam Armstrong

News | 27 January 2014

Most of Khayelitsha is policeable

At the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, Phumeza Mlungwana has given evidence.

Adam Armstrong

News | 27 January 2014

SASSA fails to pay grants on time in Gugulethu and Mitchell’s Plain

There is a large backlog in social grant payments at South Africa Social Security Agency (SASSA) branches in Gugulethu and Mitchell's Plain. Beneficiaries who have not received their grants in months are accusing the state agency of incompetence.

Pharie Sefali

News | 22 January 2014

The need for real media transformation

Transformation of the media in South Africa is essential. But we should be very clear about what we mean by such transformation.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 14 January 2014

Unity after Madiba?

After the departure of Nelson Mandela, where is this unity we talk about? On the day of Tata's memorial the world was watching. It was a day where South Africans from different backgrounds, through the rain, walked, drove, took buses, trains and taxis to Soccer City to witness the memorial of an African hero.

Axolile Notywala

Opinion | 12 December 2013

Hatched the day before Madiba’s release: a born-free speaks

I was born the day before Madiba's release from prison. Most of what I know about him I was told by my parents or I learnt at school. I never met him. Nevertheless, the way he shared his life made it feel as if I knew him personally.

Nwabisa Pondoyi

Opinion | 12 December 2013

Alide Dasnois exemplifies quiet integrity and commitment to quality media

Alide Dasnois has been fired from her position as editor of the Cape Times.

GroundUp Editor

News | 8 December 2013

Nelson Mandela: An interview with Zackie Achmat

Nelson Mandela has died. He inspired and led the struggle for freedom and against the oppression of apartheid. GroundUp interviewed Zackie Achmat about Mandela. In the 2000s, Achmat led the struggle for life-saving medicines for people with HIV.

GroundUp Staff

News | 6 December 2013

What’s it like to be gay or lesbian in Khayelitsha?

On 14 December, the Desmond Tutu Foundation will host a beauty pageant called Mr and Miss Gay Ekasi in Salt River. Most participants will be from Khayelitsha and other Cape Town townships. Does the popularity of events like these mean it is becoming easier to be gay or lesbian in Cape Town’s largest township?

Pharie Sefali

News | 28 November 2013

“We’ve lost hope in our government”

Several houses in Gugulethu were damaged by the heavy rainfall this weekend. Hombazi Fiphaza, a resident from Kanana Square informal settlement, said, “We go through the same thing everytime there is heavy rainfall … What pains me the most is watching the children suffer because of it, and there is nothing you can do to protect them from it.”

Nwabisa Pondoyi

News | 21 November 2013