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
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
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
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
"I can't comment - the matter is sub judice." This is the refrain beloved of senior politicians from Cyril Ramaphosa to Nathi Nhleko to Thandi Modise to Baleka Mbete to President Zuma himself when faced with a difficult question.
Leo Boonzaier
Analysis | 2 October 2015
Based on how much of our public space Tim Noakes and the Banting diet occupy, you might think that one of the most important nutrition problems facing South Africa is the carbohydrate vs fat intake in our diets. It just isn’t.
Ashleigh Furlong
News | 2 October 2015
Witsand residents who live near an open field situated behind the township woke up to the “unbearable smell” of stagnant sewage water on Friday 25 September.
Barbara Maregele
News | 1 October 2015
To hear those two words from a majority of the Constitutional Court after another wave of tireless campaigning on one of the oldest and most fundamental issues we face as a country was brutal.
Gregory Solik
Opinion | 1 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
In the wake of the Hitachi/Chancellor House investigation in the US and Hitachi Corporation’s agreement to pay a huge amount to settle the corruption allegations made against it, the Constitutional Court’s judgments in My Vote Counts NPC v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others, handed down on Wednesday, could hardly be more pertinent.
Shanelle van der Berg
Analysis | 1 October 2015
This year’s Annual National Assessments (ANA), which are administered in literacy and numeracy to all learners in grades 1-6 and 9, have been postponed till December following opposition to their administration from teacher unions. How should we understand the value of these assessments, the reasons for the opposition from unions and how the assessments can be improved for the future?
Stephen Taylor
Opinion | 30 September 2015
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
Hundreds of pensioners marched from the Company’s Garden to Parliament on Tuesday to demand a “decent living wage” of R5,000 from the current R1,410 state pension.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 30 September 2015