Health

ANC calls for “deregistration of TAC”

The ANC Youth League Free State has called for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to be deregistered. This follows TAC's "Fire Benny" campaign, which calls for the dismissal of the province's Health MEC Benny Malakoane.

Nathan Geffen and GroundUp Staff

News | 19 February 2015

Addiction and alcoholism: from boardrooms to the streets

I’ve been around recovery from addiction for over ten years. I’m in recovery myself, and I have counselled many addicts and alcoholics who have come in and out of my office. Right now I’m doing what I love the most. I’m trying to find ways to create awareness about addiction and alcoholism; problems that are destroying our society.

Ady Dodds

Opinion | 13 February 2015

City to improve toilet cleaning facility

This is a response by Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services, to GroundUp's article "Is this the Dirtiest Job in Cape Town?" published on 21 January.

Ernest Sonnenberg

Opinion | 23 January 2015

So you want a fake medical certificate? Meet Mancane and co.

Hung over and want to stay in bed? Missed a deadline for a university assignment? Mancane and his colleagues in Katlehong may be able to help you.

Pharie Sefali

News | 23 January 2015

Phumeza’s chance to hear again

A fundraising campaign has sprung up to pay for cochlear implants that would help former drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patient and current activist Phumeza Tisile regain her hearing.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 19 December 2014

Empty medicine shelves of Gauteng hospital

Gauteng hospitals are suffering severe medicine stockouts. Here are photos that GroundUp has obtained of the empty shelves of a pharmacy in a Gauteng tertiary hospital. All the medicines shown (or, to be more precise, not shown) are used to treat psychiatric conditions.

GroundUp Staff

News | 12 December 2014

Unions should rescue TAC, says Achmat

Former Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) leader, Zackie Achmat, has called on the trade unions to come to the rescue of TAC which has been mired in financial difficulties.

Alide Dasnois

News | 10 December 2014

Life-saving AIDS medicine out of stock in Gauteng

Hospitals throughout Gauteng ran out of essential medicines in recent weeks, including a life-saving drug for people with AIDS called amphotericin B.

Daneel Knoetze and GroundUp staff

News | 9 December 2014

Teaching Khayelitsha children to swim

Nondumiso Marman used to fear water but now she teaches Khayelitsha children how to swim.

Siyabonga Kalipa

News | 3 December 2014

Donors respond generously to GroundUp article on sanitary pads

In November, GroundUp published an article on learners using socks and all manner of items as sanitary pads. Donations have been streaming in to the GroundUp offices ever since. These will be distributed to schools.

GroundUp staff

Brief | 2 December 2014

World Aids Day: TAC still needed

About 200 people gathered at The Orbit in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on World Aids Day in support of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). The TAC is trying to raise R30million for 2015 in order to continue doing its work.

GroundUp Staff

Brief | 1 December 2014

Organisations allege dreadful conditions at Pollsmoor awaiting trial facility

Lack of mattresses, a leaking roof, lack of hot water and insufficient access to medical treatment: Pollsmoor’s facility for awaiting trial prisoners has been slammed by civil society organisations for what they call “several concerns regarding conditions of detention at the facility.”

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 27 November 2014

“You see yourself vanishing and you think: I’m going to die”

Andaleeb Rinquest remembers the moment she accepted, with certainty, the imminence of her own death.

Daneel Knoetze

Feature | 26 November 2014

Dead man left to “cook” in sun for hours

Mahlubandile Mdingi lay dead for seven hours on a street corner in Bardale extension, Mfuleni, before the health department’s pathology services took his body away.

Johnnie Isaac and GroundUp staff

News | 25 November 2014

Amidst acrimony, Somerset West soup kitchen to be replaced by transport hub

The Helderberg Street People’s Centre (HSPC), a soup kitchen for the poor in Somerset West, has been given notice by the City to quit its premises by 31 January 2015.

Katy Scott

News | 24 November 2014

Urban initiates: are the teachings still relevant?

In many African cultures, boys from age 14 must go through the process of initiation, where they are circumcised in order to be recognized as men by the community. But how relevant is the ceremony for today’s urban youth and are the traditions being upheld in the cities?

Pharie Sefali

News | 20 November 2014