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2 months ago | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Lerato Mutsila |Naledi Sikhakhane |Tamsin Metelerkamp
SONA 2025 While some civil society organisations are cautiously optimistic about statements from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address 2025, a repeated refrain across a number of sectors was: ‘We’ve heard it all before’.
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Jan 5, 2025 | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Naledi Sikhakhane
FOOD BASKET CHECK Despite multiple conversations and interventions by civil society and the government, the price of food baskets is still rising even if it’s at a slower rate than previous years when food inflation was in double digits. Access to nutritious food is inadequate for millions of working class people and millions relying on grants.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Naledi Sikhakhane
DEADLY CALLING Activists list being tracked, threatening calls, bribery and surveillance as deterrents to their fight against pollution, cracked houses, livestock dying everywhere and other results of living near mining establishments The residents of Mbabane village in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, were hopeful when they saw a new establishment come into the community in 2021.
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Dec 1, 2024 | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Naledi Sikhakhane
PUBLIC HEALTHCARE Deputy President Paul Mashatile and Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi accepted a memorandum from the Treatment Action Campaign and allied civil society organisations on World Aids Day. More than 600 people marched to the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape on Sunday — World Aids Day — to hand over a memorandum asking for people living with HIV to receive a six-month supply of antiretroviral (ARV) medicine at a time.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Naledi Sikhakhane
COST OF LIVING President Cyril Ramaphosa endorses the expansion of a VAT-free basket while researchers warn that despite cooler food inflation the food basket is still unaffordable for many South Africans this festive season.
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Naledi Sikhakhane
DEADLY DEDICATION Human rights defenders from across South Africa shared their fears and victories with Mary Lawlor, the UN Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, who was on a self-initiated visit to the country.
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Nov 8, 2024 | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Naledi Sikhakhane
EMERGENCY FIX The roads agency will repair the 64-year-old Ezimbokodweni River Bridge in two phases after ‘wear and tear’ resulted in cracks. However, it expects high waters caused by the summer rains will pose a challenge to fixing the bridge. The bridge over the Ezimbokodweni River on the N2 near Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal, was closed to motorists on Monday, 4 November, after it started to crack.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Naledi Sikhakhane |Michelle Banda
DISPLACED AND FORGOTTEN The government committed to caring for those displaced in the 2022 KwaZulu-Natal floods. But the shelters they’ve been placed in have sewage on the floors, mould on the walls and mixed genders of all ages living in single rooms. Now they say they face potential eviction.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
allafrica.com | Naledi Sikhakhane
The Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria is set to make a ruling in a Social Relief of Distress grant exclusion case brought by the Institute for Economic Justice and #PaytheGrants against the government. Millions of people who qualify to receive the grant are excluded by the system, and hundreds of thousands have challenges accessing the funds despite being approved to receive the R370 monthly grant. The food basket is still unaffordable for SRD grant recipients, sitting at almost R400.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
dailymaverick.co.za | Naledi Sikhakhane
The Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria is set to make a ruling in a Social Relief of Distress grant exclusion case brought by the Institute for Economic Justice and #PaytheGrants against the government. Millions of people who qualify to receive the grant are excluded by the system, and hundreds of thousands have challenges accessing the funds despite being approved to receive the R370 monthly grant. The food basket is still unaffordable for SRD grant recipients, sitting at almost R400.
