FEATURE
11 May 2015
The Reserve Bank came to the rescue of African Bank when it collapsed in August 2014. But there’s no rescue plan for borrowers, many of whom are repaying loans which experts say are contrary to the National Credit Act.
NEWS
17 March 2015
Civil war, betrayal and murder are what Asad Abdullahi left behind in his childhood to travel thousands of kilometres to the land of Mandela, the country of his dreams. But in South Africa he’d experience violence unlike anywhere else in Africa. Mandy de Waal speaks to Jonny Steinberg about his new book ‘A Man of Good Hope’.
NEWS
9 December 2014
It might come to light why and how local banks readily granted bonds to people who couldn’t afford them when investors in a scam, run by the now liquidated Brusson Finance, head to the Gauteng High Court early in 2015.
NEWS
3 October 2014
After decades of fighting for compensation, workers from Pelindaba employed in the apartheid nuclear programme have caught the attention of Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela. The workers allege that they were exposed to chemicals and radiation that made them sick. They want Madonsela to bring their lengthy struggle for compensation to a close.
ANALYSIS
30 September 2014
Palls of thick smoke hung over the N2 mid-September 2014, after protesters from the farming town of Grabouw, some 20 kilometres from Gordon’s Bay, barricaded the national highway with burning tyres. Rubber bullets flew and canisters of teargas exploded as the police met protesters head on.
ANALYSIS
27 August 2014
Photos of South Africa's national schools debate team wearing keffiyehs and pins with the Palestinian flag fuelled a hurricane of social media hate earlier in August 2014. Mandy de Waal interviewed members of the team and considers what can be learned from that perfect storm.
FEATURE
31 July 2014
Clans living near Kosi Bay have used an ancient fish trapping system to create a livelihood for themselves and their families for centuries. But as population pressure rises, increasing the twin stressors of poverty and unemployment, how long will the fragile balance between humans and nature provide a bountiful catch? Mandy de Waal travelled to uMhlabuyalingana for GroundUp. Jon Pienaar took the photographs.
ANALYSIS
10 July 2014
Activist-cum-political contender Mametlwe Sebei says news editors are actively excluding socialist issues from the public discourse. Jane Duncan of Rhodes says editors squash or are threatened by socialist ideas. Mandy de Waal looked into their claims.
FEATURE
27 June 2014
During apartheid, a nuclear weapons programme at Pelindaba used workers from nearby settlements. Decades have gone by and millions of rands have been spent on investigations, yet questions remain and hundreds of workers who claim to have become ill after exposure to hazardous material are still fighting for compensation.
ANALYSIS
22 April 2014
In the Eastern Cape, the Democratic Alliance is in bed with a despot convicted of homicide, attempted murder, kidnapping, arson and a range of other heinous crimes. Mandy de Waal asks whether the opposition is wise to hug a tyrant close to its breast, in the hope of defeating the ANC.
NEWS
1 April 2014
A man trying to fight corruption and restore financial discipline in the Free State was hijacked and maimed in February 2013, and died the following May. Moses Tshake was asking questions about the province’s corrupt agricultural projects before he died. Now the investigation into his murder has stalled. Mandy de Waal and Jon Pienaar investigate why.
NEWS
21 February 2014
As an investigative journalist I’ve come face-to-face with grifters. I’ve interviewed fraudsters and studied sociopathy extensively. I’m fascinated by psychopaths and the peculiarities of the brain that make them different to the rest of us. Trying to understand the mental workings of good and evil is a hobby of mine.
NEWS
5 February 2014
Ma Gladys Mphepho hovers over a pot on a two plate cooker in her shack in Papamani, an informal settlement outside of Grahamstown. “We do not have dignity,” she says, stirring the rice, flavoured with beef stock, that is her family’s Sunday lunch. “We do not know what it means to have dignity. Forget about any question of dignity,” says Mphepho.
FEATURE
20 November 2013
On the edge of the university hamlet of Grahamstown, there’s a municipal dump where people discard trash. It’s far enough out of town to not smell the stench – or for most locals not to be reminded of the haunting plight of the poor who subsist off the waste.