Articles for GroundUp Staff

Eastern Cape building workers left high and dry

Some 20,000 building workers in the Eastern Cape are not covered by any minimum wage agreement.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and GroundUp staff

News | 21 October 2015

Protesters occupy Shoprite, demanding lower bread price

Protesters occupied Shoprite in Khayelitsha Mall this morning, demanding a reduction in the price of bread.

GroundUp Staff

Brief | 20 October 2015

Khayelitsha activists want answers from Nhleko

Police Minister Nathi Nhleko addressed over a thousand people at an Imbizo in the Khayelitsha Stadium on Saturday. He accused the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into Policing of being politically motivated. Earlier at the same meeting, ANC Western Cape head Marius Fransman, made the same accusation.

GroundUp staff and Bernard Chiguvare

Brief | 19 October 2015

Court hears whether silicosis miners can bring class action

Lawyers for the mining companies have begun to set out their case in the South Gauteng High Court, which is hearing an application from mineworkers to be allowed to claim for damages due to exposure to silica dust on behalf of a bigger group of affected mineworkers.

Lwandile Fikeni and GroundUp staff

News | 15 October 2015

Sick miners in court for landmark silicosis case

Bangumzi Balakazi, from Peddie in the Eastern Cape, was among the former gold miners sitting in the South Gauteng High Court this week as the landmark silicosis court case got underway.

Lwandile Fikeni and GroundUp staff

News | 14 October 2015

Spotlight on social grants: The good, the bad and the confusing

For millions of South Africans, the monthly social grants -- mostly pensions and child support -- are the difference between survival and starvation.

GroundUp Staff

News | 7 October 2015

Spotlight on social grants: Sassa’s bid to stop illegal deductions

Every month, money is deducted from the accounts of hundreds of beneficiaries of social grants without their permission. The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is working to get the money refunded. But according to the Black Sash, the system Sassa has set up does not work.

GroundUp Staff

Feature | 7 October 2015

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

Life-saving drug stopped by sole supplier

South Africa is running out of an essential medicine for treating very sick patients with tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant bacterial infections. Many hospitals are already out of stock.

GroundUp Staff

News | 5 October 2015

Bonteheuwel residents and Mayor De Lille trade accusations

Some Bonteheuwel residents who attended a public meeting addressed by Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille last night allege she told them to "voetsek" and other insults. The meeting descended into chaos at one point, and the versions of what happened that have been published by the mayor and a residents' group contradict each other.

GroundUp Staff and Bernard Chiguvare

News | 2 October 2015

“You are responsible for creating a historical sadness” - Archbishop

Nearly 2,000 people braved the cold and rain to join the Unite Against Corruption march to Parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people participated in the main march in Pretoria. Smaller marches also took place in other cities, including Durban and Grahamstown.

GroundUp Staff

News | 30 September 2015

Uneasy calm shattered in Masiphumelele

A temporary respite from violence in Masiphumelele ended today, as police and over a thousand residents clashed. Residents blocked the road to Kommetjie with burning tyres. Police used teargas, rubber bullets and arrests to disperse the protest.

Bernard Chiguvare, Masixole Feni & GroundUp staff

News | 29 September 2015

USN sues consumer activist

R2 million. That’s how much sport supplement company Ultimate Sports Nutrition (USN) wants consumer activist Harris Steinman to pay for calling its owner, Albe Geldenhuys, a “scam artist”, “liar”, “quack”, “fraud” and “snake oil salesman”.

GroundUp Staff

News | 16 September 2015

Helping Andiswa

On 17 August we reported how a 43-year-old woman — who we called Andiswa — was left disabled after an especially brutal rape. Readers asked how they could help. We're pleased to report that Iliso Care Society is helping out.

GroundUp Staff

Brief | 10 September 2015