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News

Source: Supplied.

Property Development

Hundreds of incomplete homes stand empty in KwaZulu-Natal housing project

Joseph Bracken and Tsoanelo Sefoloko 20 hours

Source: GroundUp/Sechaba Mokhethi. A Qingjian Group Company plant in Qacha’s Nek during construction of the Makhaola Lerotholi Highway.

Construction & Engineering

Lesotho community left in ruins by highway project

Sechaba Mokhethi 3 days

Some learners have given up hope that their promised new school will ever be built. Photos: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik / GroundUp

Primary & Secondary Education

Promises, promises but still no school

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik 13 Nov 2025

Workers protested outside this project site in Illitha Park, Khayelitsha, since Monday over their unpaid wages. Photo: Vincent Lali / GroundUp

Labour Law & Unions

Workers shut down Cape Town construction project over unpaid wages

13 Nov 2025

Image source: Tim Mossholder from

Human Rights Law

Transgender prisoner wins right to hormone therapy

11 Nov 2025

Western Cape pensioners have petitioned government to increase their grants. Illustration: Lisa Nelson

Health & Social Welfare

Pensioners ask Parliament to increase grant to R5,000

Marecia Damons 11 Nov 2025

Source: Supplied.

Infrastructure & Utilities

Nelson Mandela Bay reopens bridges damaged during 2024 floods

Thamsanqa Mbovane 10 Nov 2025

A Judicial Conduct Committee has cleared Johannesburg High Court Judge Denise Fisher of wrongdoing. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks/GroundUp

Law Practice

Judge Denise Fisher succeeds in clearing her name

Tania Broughton 5 Nov 2025

CWP worker Ewart Sithebe, in the yellow jacket with a microphone, led the crowd. Photo: Warren Mabona / GroundUp

Labour Law & Unions

EPWP workers march for permanent jobs and better pay

Warren Mabona 4 Nov 2025

Source: Thembi Siaga/GroundUp.

Infrastructure & Utilities

No water for two years as R200m project remains incomplete

Thembi Siaga 3 Nov 2025

Finance

More than 10-million consumers cannot repay their debt

GroundUp and The Outlier 3 Nov 2025

Inkosi Thathezakhe Special School in the Mzinyathi District will stay closed until its needs are fully met, says Dudu Moloi, chair of the School Governing Body. Photo: Bongane Motaung / GroundUp

Primary & Secondary Education

KwaZulu-Natal Premier promises funds for special schools

Bongane Motaung and Tsoanelo Sefoloko 30 Oct 2025

About 30 magistrates protested outside Parliament at lunch time on Wednesday afternoon. Photo: Zora Hollie / GroundUp

Law Practice

Magistrates protest outside Parliament

Zora Hollie 30 Oct 2025

Source: GroundUp/Matthew. Hirsch. Rosaline Isaacs, 77, last heard about her claim three years ago when the Land Claims Commission sent her a letter thanking her for her patience.

Land Policy, Reform & Restitution

District Six claimants wonder if they will be alive by the time government redevelops the historic site

Matthew Hirsch 28 Oct 2025

The high court in Pietermaritzburg has ruled that the almost 1,800 residents of an informal settlement in Shakas Head, Ballito, may be evicted. Illustration: Lisa Nelson / GroundUp

Land & Property Law

Court green-lights eviction of over 1,800 Ballito residents

Tania Broughton 24 Oct 2025

Affordable & Social Housing

Social housing in Cape Town questioned

Katja Hamilton 22 Oct 2025

Source: GroundUp/Bongane Motaung

Infrastructure & Utilities

KZN municipality battles skills shortage as water infrastructure collapses

Bongane Motaung 21 Oct 2025

Source: GroundUp/Kimberly Mutandiro

Construction & Engineering

Contract workers march in Joburg demanding permanent jobs

Kimberly Mutandiro 21 Oct 2025

People illegally mine for gold in this forest in north-western Zambia. Photos and videos supplied

Mining

Guns, gangs and gold: The battle for Zambia’s riches

Charles Mafa, James Beluchi and Caleb Likomeno 22 Oct 2025

University of Free State’s campuses have begun re-opening. Photo: Tladi Moloi / GroundUp

Higher Education

Agreement reached at University of Free State after week of protests

Tladi Moloi 21 Oct 2025

Otters’ Creek Junior School teacher Ayesha Galant presents a lesson. Photos: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp

Primary & Secondary Education

Zoning problem forces Cape Town school to close

20 Oct 2025

Parents protest outside Khulangolwazi Special School in Durban. Photo: Tsoanelo Sefoloko / GroundUp

Primary & Secondary Education

Special schools closed in KZN after education department fails to pay subsidies

Tsoanelo Sefoloko 17 Oct 2025

Source: Themba Siaga. Construction of the Davhana Stadium started in 2019, but the project remains incomplete, though millions have been spent on it.

Infrastructure & Utilities

Limpopo stadium project soaks up time and money

Thembi Siaga 16 Oct 2025

Inclusion, Empowerment & Social Justice

City of Cape Town denies reducing ad hoc Dial-a-Ride bookings

16 Oct 2025

Phathutshedzo Mukwevho stands next to the demolished structure of Humbulani Nenzhelele. Photo: Maanda Bele / GroundUp

Land & Property Law

Land spat highlights tension between traditional and formal law

Maanda Bele 16 Oct 2025

Gauteng High Court judge Letty Molopa-Sethosa delivered a judgment that had been outstanding since August 2022. The case, however, never appeared on any of the judiciary’s reserved judgments reports. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp

Law Practice

Judge hands down ruling three years late

Marecia Damons 14 Oct 2025

Pharmacists can initiate people with HIV on antiretroviral treatment, the Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled. Photo: GroundUp Staff

Medical Law

Pharmacists can treat people with HIV, appeal court rules

10 Oct 2025

Activists have welcomed the extension of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) and the Lesotho Exemption Permit (LEP) by another 18 months. This announcement has come as a welcome relief to many families. Graphic: Lisa Nelson/GroundUp

Immigration & Citizenship Law

Zimbabwe and Lesotho permits extended to May 2027

Joseph Chirume 10 Oct 2025

These blocks of flats in Kalk Bay, built in the 1940s, have been inhabited by generations of fishing families. The families are concerned that high water bills are threatening their ability to keep living here. Photos: Liezl Human

Food, Water & Energy Security

We’re being pushed out, say Kalk Bay fishing families

Liezl Human 9 Oct 2025

Source: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik

Affordable & Social Housing

Eastern Cape families affected by 2023 floods to wait until next year for houses

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik 7 Oct 2025

The Land Court has ruled that landowners who wish to apply to the courts for an eviction order must first go through a mediation process. Graphic: Lisa Nelson / GroundUp

Land & Property Law

Landowners must go through mediation before applying for an eviction, court rules

Tania Broughton 7 Oct 2025

Source: Pexels.

Infrastructure & Utilities

Billions needed to fix courts, prisons and police buildings

GroundUp and The Outlier 3 Oct 2025

The new campus for Rivoni School of the Blind includes several large buildings. But work to finish the project has been stalled for most of this year. Photos: Thembi Siaga / GroundUp

Primary & Secondary Education

IDT’s school project stalls as costs reach R198m

Thembi Siaga 3 Oct 2025

Dozens of people, many of them health workers, picketed outside Red Cross Hospital on Thursday. Photos: Matthew Hirsch

Ethics & Medicolegal

Health workers picket for flotilla to be protected

Matthew Hirsch 3 Oct 2025

About 50 members of the Food and Allied Workers Union picketed outside the Labour Court on Tuesday. They had applied to interdict South African Breweries (SAB) from retrenching workers. Photo: Silver Sibiya / GroundUp

Labour Law & Unions

Court dismisses bid to stop retrenchment of SA Breweries workers

Silver Sibiya 2 Oct 2025

Image source: Maxim Kazmin –

Corporate & Commercial Law

Legal action looms over Mamelodi Magistrates’ Court construction fiasco

Warren Mabona 1 Oct 2025

Image credit: on

Health & Social Welfare

Sassa beneficiaries get green light to keep using Postbank

2 Oct 2025

The high court in Pretoria has struck Postbank’s urgent application to stop the termination of its contract with the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) from the court’s urgent roll. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Health & Social Welfare

Judge dismisses Postbank’s attempt to keep social grants contract

Marecia Damons 29 Sep 2025

Source: The Polihali Dam wall under construction. Photo: Sechaba Mokhethi.

Infrastructure & Utilities

Villagers lodge complaint with African Development Bank against Lesotho Highlands Water Project

Sechaba Mokhethi 29 Sep 2025

Source: eThekwini Municipality.

Affordable & Social Housing

Anger over delays at Durban housing project

Tsoanelo Sefoloko 29 Sep 2025

Source: Wikipedia.

Infrastructure & Utilities

Passenger rail gets back on track, slowly

GroundUp and The Outlier 29 Sep 2025

Lesotho’s coat of arms at Makoanyane Square in Maseru. Tariff changes could halve the country’s exports to the United States, the International Monetary Fund has warned. Photo: Sechaba Mokhethi / GroundUp

HR & Management

Trump’s tariffs could cost Lesotho 30,000 jobs, the IMF warns

Sechaba Mokhethi 26 Sep 2025

Tando Poni, Samwu’s regional secretary, addresses a crowd of workers on Tuesday, instructing them to return to work. Photo: Johnnie Isaacs / GroundUp

Labour Law & Unions

Municipal strike called off in Buffalo City

Johnnie Isaac 25 Sep 2025

The contract between SASSA and Postbank is to be terminated this month. But Postbank has approached the court to get this set aside, saying it will have “severe consequences for vulnerable citizens”. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Health & Social Welfare

Court battle over the end of Postbank’s agreement with Sassa

Marecia Damons 25 Sep 2025

About 200 activists marched to the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday to support Wild Coast communities opposing seismic surveys and oil exploration rights granted to Shell and Impact Africa. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee

Inclusion, Empowerment & Social Justice

Activists march against Shell’s oil exploration

Ihsaan Haffejee and Thamsanqa Mbovane 17 Sep 2025

Learners from Carnarvon High School, Northern Cape, traveled to Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the World Robot Olympiad Open Championship (from the left): Roswell Pipes, Jerome Visagie, Eugenio Nuwegeld, Shevodian Farmer, Lincoln De Wee, Farren Louw. Photos supplied.

Primary & Secondary Education

Karoo learners in international robotics competition

Zora Hollie 16 Sep 2025

Financial Services

Sassa says it has fixed most of its audit problems but gaps remain

Marecia Damons 16 Sep 2025

SAPS HQ fiasco: MPs lose patience with Public Works Minister

Infrastructure & Utilities

SAPS HQ fiasco: MPs lose patience with Public Works Minister

Matthew Hirsch 16 Sep 2025

Media

Lesotho Times editor wrongfully arrested, admits anti-corruption agency

Sechaba Mokhethi 12 Sep 2025

Local community members and supporters of Sustaining the Wild Coast and Greenpeace celebrating an early court victory against Shell in Makhanda in September 2022. Archive photo: Lucas Nowicki

Coal, Oil & Gas

Shell’s Wild Coast seismic blasting case goes to the Concourt

Tania Broughton 12 Sep 2025