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Secunda CTL is a synthetic fuel plant owned by Sasol at Secunda, Mpumalanga, in South Africa. It uses coal liquefaction to produce petroleum-like synthetic crude oil from coal. Image credit: , , via Wikimedia Commons

Coal, Oil & Gas

SA’s fuel supply and the Iran war: data black holes and low strategic stock put the country at risk

Rod Crompton and Bruce Douglas Young 4 hours

Image source: freepik from

Primary & Secondary Education

Getting through school in SA: How learners make it to the end after a poor start

Ursula Hoadley, Carol Bertram, Gabrielle Wills and Servaas van der Berg 21 hours

The Gauteng Department of Social Development will no longer fund non-South African social workers. Illustration: Lisa Nelson / GroundUp

NGO, NPO & Social Enterprise

Gauteng cuts funding for non-South African social workers

Seth Thorne 2 days

HIV/AIDS

HIV in South Africa: why rolling out a groundbreaking new shot will miss a critical group of men

Paul Bowen and Rajen Govender 2 days

Some learners at schools in the Amathole District and parts of the Chris Hani District in the Eastern Cape have missed days of school after transport operators employed by government went on strike due to unpaid wages. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp

Primary & Secondary Education

Eastern Cape scholar transport on strike over unpaid wages

29 May 2026

The Supreme Court of Appeal has overturned a Gauteng High Court ruling that allowed German firm Frazer Solar to attach Lesotho state assets worth R950-million. Photo: Ben Bezuidenhout via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Corporate & Commercial Law

Court halts solar company from seizing Lesotho’s assets

Sechaba Mokhethi 25 May 2026

Fuel pump nozzles for gasoline at a TotalEnergies gas station in Paris, France. Image credit: Reuters/Benoit Tessier

Coal, Oil & Gas

Iran war is exposing South Africa’s dependency on diesel: what went wrong

Lisette IJssel de Schepper 25 May 2026

Seynabou Diop works at a station in a laboratory where the hantavirus genome was sequenced from the April 2026 outbreak, at Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal. Image credit: Reuters/Ricci Shryock

Infectious Diseases

Hantavirus in Africa: why climate change, rats and weak surveillance are worrying scientists

Wolfgang Preiser, Carla Mavian, Cheryl Baxter, Richard Lessells and Tulio de Oliveira 22 May 2026

Children wade through the flooded Westpoort road on their way to school in Mitchells Plain on 10 May. Archive photo: David Harrison

Climate Change

Explainer: What last week’s storm says about climate change

Peter Johnston 22 May 2026

Queues at the Department of Labour office in Cape Town. Some people claining unemployment benefits online may be sending their files to an old system. Archive photo: Qaqamba Falithenjwa / GroundUp

Remuneration & Payroll

You may be sending your UIF claim to a dead website

Marecia Damons 21 May 2026

Media

TikTok’s popular microdramas shrink TV into bite‑sized chunks

Jessica Maddox and Krysten Stein 20 May 2026

Protesters outside the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s offices in Cape Town in August 2025. Archive photo: Matthew Hirsch

Coal, Oil & Gas

No plan to review SA’s coal exports to Israel, says Parks Tau

Matthew Hirsch 18 May 2026

The Constitutional Court has ruled that rejected asylum seekers cannot reapply. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp

Immigration & Citizenship Law

Constitutional Court rules asylum seekers once rejected cannot reapply

Ohene Yaw Ampofo-Anti 14 May 2026

Source: Haytam123258 via

Agriculture

Agriculture in Africa: Science and research can’t make an impact without investment and good policies

Pape Abdoulaye Seck 14 May 2026

Happiness Primary School is one of three no-fee-paying schools in Nigel that have had their electricity cut off for months. Photo: Kimberly Mutandiro / GroundUp

Primary & Secondary Education

Schools left in darkness as municipal bills mount

Kimberly Mutandiro 12 May 2026

Eskom’s current and only nuclear power station located at Koeberg, Western Cape. Archive photo: Brent Meersman

Nuclear Power

Public gets three more weeks to comment on Eskom nuclear site — but critics say it’s not enough

John Yeld 11 May 2026

Image source: DC Studio from

Primary & Secondary Education

What’s stopping kids from learning useful skills? Short answer: exams

Frank Quansah 8 May 2026

TV

Propaganda machine to public good: a brief history of 50 years of TV in South Africa

Sisanda Nkoala 8 May 2026

The CSIR’s 2024 power generation statistics found that the power Eskom sells to South Africans is more than three times as expensive, on average, as what new wind and solar can deliver (R1.95 per kWh vs 50-60 cents per kWh). Above: Eskom’s Lethabo power station in the Free State. Photo: Simisa Bearbeitung (Auschnitt, Farben): Pechristener via

Coal, Oil & Gas

The Israel/US-Iran war is hitting South Africa hard – our oil dependency is why

Jo-Anne Smetherham and Yanga Malotana 8 May 2026

South Africa’s AI policy cited fake research, created by AI: what lessons need to be learned

4th Industrial Revolution

South Africa’s AI policy cited fake research, created by AI: what lessons need to be learned

Nomalanga Mashinini 6 May 2026

Airlines are facing higher fuel costs and cutting fares at the same time. How does that work?

Travel

Airlines are facing higher fuel costs and cutting fares at the same time. How does that work?

Anita Manfreda, Antoine Bisson, Catheryn Khoo and Cindy Lee 4 May 2026

Berenice Paulsen (left foreground) at the Bellville Sassa office in November 2025. We then that she had been trying for five months to help her sister Desiree Fredericks (right foreground), to get an Older Persons Grant. Archive photo: Marecia Damons

Health & Social Welfare

New Sassa system piloted in Bellville office

Marecia Damons 4 May 2026

Image credit: on

Mental health

Why do so many African women bleach their skin? Study looks beyond what they tell researchers

Oyenike Balogun 4 May 2026

Attorney and Prasa whistleblower Martha Ngoye addresses the audience at the launch of the Courage Hub SA. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee / GroundUp

Law Practice

New centre to support whistleblowers

Ihsaan Haffejee 28 Apr 2026

Advertising

You probably wouldn’t notice if an AI chatbot slipped ads into its responses

Brian Jay Tang and Kang G. Shin 28 Apr 2026

FAO expands Wikipedia partnership to boost agrifood knowledge access

Agriculture

FAO expands Wikipedia partnership to boost agrifood knowledge access

28 Apr 2026

Early Childhood Development

Untangling the red tape of crèche registration

Mary-Anne Gontsana 23 Apr 2026

Labour Law

Labour Court slams CCMA commissioner who questioned assault victim’s gender

Tania Broughton 21 Apr 2026

From ‘sustainable’ to ‘regenerative’ agriculture: What’s in a name?

Sustainable Farming

From ‘sustainable’ to ‘regenerative’ agriculture: What’s in a name?

Kate Congreves 21 Apr 2026

There were long queues at the SASSA offices in Makhado last week as beneficiaries tried to find out what had happened to their grants. Photo: Thembi Siaga

Health & Social Welfare

Thousands of grants suspended after Sassa review process in Limpopo

Thembi Siaga 17 Apr 2026

Rapid wind farm development just beyond the boundaries of Eskom’s consolidated Thyspunt properties has already created a large network of new powerlines. Photos: John Yeld

Nuclear Power

Thyspunt recommended for Eskom’s new nuclear power station

John Yeld 15 Apr 2026

Electric minibus taxis: The challenges and gains facing Cape Town’s transition

Logistics & Transport

Electric minibus taxis: The challenges and gains facing Cape Town’s transition

MJ (Thinus) Booysen and Joshua Sello 14 Apr 2026

Two companies who fraudulently acquired an R85-7m tender for a border wall must now repay the profits. Illustration: Bronwyn Webb / GroundUp

Corporate & Commercial Law

Court sets aside R86m border wall tender over fraud

Tania Broughton 10 Apr 2026

Two South African insurance giants collect 87% of all funeral policy premiums deducted directly from pension and disability grants paid out by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa). Illustration: Lisa Nelson

Health & Social Welfare

Two insurance giants dominate Sassa funeral deductions

Anton van Zyl and Raymond Joseph 9 Apr 2026

The Kendal Power Station, a coal-fired station of Eskom in Mpumalanga. Image credit: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo

Energy

SA court orders Eskom to disclose R70bn coal and diesel contracts – why the ruling matters

Felix Dube 9 Apr 2026

Marketing

Many tourism hotspots are ‘de‑marketing’ – with mixed success. We researched the smartest ways to do it

Anne Hardy and Giancarlo Fedeli 9 Apr 2026

Judge David Makhoba ruled that R14m in contracts for surgical masks and protective jumpsuits awarded during Covid bypassed bid processes. Illustration: Bronwyn Webb / GroundUp

Corporate & Commercial Law

Judge orders Tark Group directors to personally repay Covid contract profits

Tania Broughton 8 Apr 2026

Source: GroundUp/Lubabalo Ngcukana. The 11-storey Botha Sigcau building in Mthatha caught fire on Tuesday night.

Construction & Engineering

Eastern Cape government hub gutted by fire

Lubabalo Ngcukana 1 Apr 2026

Source: GroundUp/Postbank.

Banking

Postbank to resume black card rollout

Marecia Damons 1 Apr 2026

Police kept protesting former municipal workers away from Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza’s State of the City address in Germiston on Wednesday. Photos: Kimberly Mutandiro / GroundUp

Labour Law & Unions

Ekurhuleni’s “ghost workers” demand jobs and compensation

Kimberly Mutandiro 27 Mar 2026

Media

Matt Brittin: BBC’s new director general appointed at an existential moment for the broadcaster

Steven Barnett 27 Mar 2026

Our interest in electric vehicles has grown due to oil price spikes. And it’s likely to remain

Fuel & Energy

Our interest in electric vehicles has grown due to oil price spikes. And it’s likely to remain

Tauel Harper 26 Mar 2026

Part of a wall at Rivoni School for the Blind’s new campus that has collapsed. The school was originally meant to be completed by June 2024. Photos: Thembi Siaga / GroundUp

Primary & Secondary Education

R198m school for the blind incomplete and left to ruin

Thembi Siaga 26 Mar 2026

Social Media

Meta and Google just lost a landmark social media addiction case. A tech law expert explains the fallout

Rob Nicholls 26 Mar 2026

Image credit: The Green Connection

Mining

Mining companies and land rights in South Africa: how environmentalists have used the law to defend communities

Mzingaye Brilliant Xaba 26 Mar 2026

Source: Peter Luhanga/GroundUp. An aerial view of Khayalam informal settlement in Khayelitsha beside the N2.

Affordable & Social Housing

What Cape Town is spending on homes, roads and the N2 wall

GroundUp Staff and Peter Luhanga 25 Mar 2026

Image credit: on

Climate Change

South Africa needs R250bn just to meet basic climate adaptation needs over the next decade

Anna Taylor 30 Mar 2026

Source: GroundUp/Peter Luhanga

Construction & Engineering

Court blocks building along Cape Town’s Diep River floodplain

Peter Luhanga 25 Mar 2026

Emergency Medicine

HBO’s ‘The Pitt’ nails how hospital cyberattacks create chaos, endanger patients and disrupt critical care

Jeffrey Tully and Christian Dameff 27 Mar 2026

Small-scale fishers from the West Coast picketed outside the Cape High Court on Monday. Photo: Liezl Human

Coal, Oil & Gas

TotalEnergies in court over offshore oil and gas drilling

Liezl Human 24 Mar 2026