Police cases against three Tormin mine managers, one of whom was accused of driving into and knocking over a mineworker during a strike, have all been withdrawn.
Barbara Maregele
Feature | 11 December 2015
Mercia Kleinsmith has been the councillor of Ward 9, or Bellville South, since 2009. She won a by-election following the death of her husband Glen, the day after the DA won the province in April that year. Glen had been hailed in the press as the city’s “leading drugbuster”.
Steve Kretzmann
Feature | 9 December 2015
The National Rural Youth Service Corps (Narysec), set up to train unemployed young people in rural areas, seems to be in disarray in the Eastern Cape, where some students have given up hope of graduating while others say they have been given certificates for courses they did not complete.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and GroundUp staff
Feature | 8 December 2015
A group called Lungelo Lethu Human Rights Foundation is preparing a class action suit against the four major banks for what it says are the unlawful evictions of thousands of South Africans from their homes.
Ciaran Ryan
Feature | 2 December 2015
In a dimly-lit room, about 50 people wait to have proof-of-residence documents authorised by Dunoon ward councillor Lubabalo Makeleni.
Steve Kretzmann
Feature | 27 November 2015
The corridors are long and institution-like, lined by doors. Light peeks in through the staircase windows, but the corridors are dark, despite it being 10AM on a bright Johannesburg day.
Sarita Pillay
Feature | 20 November 2015
“Every time they go murder somebody, the guns come to me, I clean it and I load it again,” says 21-year-old Shireen. “Yoh! … If you’re on drugs, you catch on to all the stuff, man. You’re not the same.”
Anne Gonschorek
Feature | 29 October 2015
Earlier this month, Health-e reported the difficulties of accessing ambulances in rural Eastern Cape. Here we report on how difficult it is to get an ambulance in a township as close as five kilometres from the nearest hospital.
Hancu Louw
Feature | 16 October 2015
Many South African women are still resorting to unsafe abortions with illegal providers, often with disastrous implications even though safe legal abortion has been available since 1997.
Thembela Ntongana
Feature | 12 October 2015
At the end of grade nine South African students are expected to decide which subjects they would like to continue with for the rest of high school. One of the important decisions they make is whether or not they will continue with maths, or take maths literacy. As five students explain, the decision is tough, affects their future, and is not always made freely and based on their true ability and interests.
Sarita Pillay
Feature | 9 October 2015
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
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
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
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
Virginia Sibanda, like thousands of youth across South Africa in November 2014, was hunched over a desk, pen in hand, taking her matric exams. Her years of accumulated academic trophies and certificates culminated in these papers. She had attended tutoring sessions, practiced the past exams, and had applied to universities to pursue her dream of studying medicine.
Sarita Pillay
Feature | 1 October 2015
It was a weekend of flaring emotions and violence at Wolwerivier relocation area. On Friday, residents protested against the City’s relocation of strangers into empty units sought by the community to alleviate the overcrowding at the settlement. Rubber bullets were fired into crowds containing mostly women and children. People were arrested and beaten when they refused to disperse.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 21 September 2015