The short answer You can submit a dispute of the deduction to SASSA The whole question Dear Grethen There is a life insurance company that has been deducting money from my SASSA child grant, but I never consented to this. How can I stop this? Can I get my money back? The long answer This is an unfortunate and long-standing problem. GroundUp wrote about this issue...

As the November 2023 deadline looms, 70% of public schools still don’t have libraries By Tatiana Kazim On 30 August, the Right to Read campaign was launched at the Women’s Jail in Johannesburg. The campaign brings together several organisations, including the Legal Resources Centre, the Centre for Child Law, SECTION27, Equal Education (EE), and Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) to mobilise civil...

The City of Cape Town has welcomed heritage approval to proceed with its social housing plans, but the hospital is already occupied By Matthew Hirsch Heritage Western Cape has given the City of Cape Town the green light for its plan to develop social housing at the old Woodstock hospital. The building has been occupied by people since 2017. Reclaim the...

The proposed warning labels will clearly indicate when food is high in sugar, salt and fat or contains artificial sweeteners, but the sugar industry has warned against “demonising sugar” By Mary-Anne Gontsana Health activists at Community Media Trust and the Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) have collected and submitted over 12,000 submissions on the health department’s draft Regulations Relating to the Labelling...

A shortage of judges and insufficient research and secretarial support are among concerns raised about the judiciary By Marecia Damons Judge Jacqueline Henriques took three years to deliver a judgment. In her judgment, she said that a lack of adequate secretarial and research support were among the reasons for the delay. According to civic organisation Judges Matter, systemic issues affecting the...

The bill has been sent back to be revised after the state’s legal advisors flagged serious shortfalls By Chris Gilili Sex workers and activists marched to the Department of Justice in Pretoria on Thursday. They were demanding that government fast-track and finalise a bill to decriminalise sex work. The draft bill is being revised after the state’s legal advisors flagged serious...

The short answer Each time you claim benefits, the UIF cycle stops and then starts again when you return to work and resume paying UIF contributions. The whole question Dear Athalie I worked at a retail store from 2012 to 2022. I got sick in 2019 and was unable to work, so I claimed sickness benefits for three months. After I got dismissed...

Solar powered public lights are better than high-mast lights, collaborative Cape Town project suggests By Noah Schermbrucker Solar-powered lights fixed onto the outside of shacks in informal settlements may be a better option than high-mast lights, a project in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, has shown. As part of their PhD project, Yael Borofsky and Stephanie Briers from ETH Zurich university in Switzerland collaborated with...

For people who receive a grant or need to receive one. By Gabrielle Kelly and GroundUp Staff This is an overview of South Africa’s social grant system and how to apply for social assistance. GroundUp updates this article regularly. This page was originally published on 6 March 2013. It is currently being updated (7 March 2023). (Please note that GroundUp is not affiliated with the Government...

“The holding of political office and remaining registered as a medical practitioner are not mutually exclusive” says judge By Tania Broughton Last year in a widely circulated video, Limpopo Health MEC Dr Pophi Ramathuba told a hospitalised Zimbabwean patient: “You are killing my health system. It’s unfair.” A preliminary committee of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) found that...