Author: Ground Up

By Raymond Joseph Former National Lotteries Commission chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba personally recommended a R4.8-million grant, supposedly for a rural soccer tournament, to a company of which his wife was a director. R3-million of this money helped buy a luxury home for the NLC’s former board chairperson. Letwaba told investigators that neither he or his wife were aware of the funding application, according to a report by auditors SkX. Former National Lotteries Commission chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba recommended that a R4.8-million grant for a rural soccer tournament be given to a company in which both his wife and his…

By Zimbali Mncube The first two articles in this series focused on defining a Universal Basic Income Grant (UBIG) and explaining its impacts and the evolving debate about its implementation. One of the most contested issues in the debate is whether or not South Africa can afford it. That’s the topic we tackle in this last article in the series. Debates about the affordability of a UBIG tend to focus on the “gross” financing costs – the amount of money the government needs to set aside to pay the grants at the outset – and the fiscal trade-offs that would have to be made. These…

By Daniel Steyn and Mkhuseli Sizani In the rural Eastern Cape school dropout rates are extremely high. Primary school teaching is also often of a haphazard quality and there is a lack of focus on early childhood development. In the space of 20 years, one organisation has established four pre-schools, an extensive e-learning programme, an independent high school, and a job skills and entrepreneurship programme. Lihle Mbikwana grew up in Xhora Mouth in the rural Eastern Cape. As a child, his walk to school was more than an hour long, which in that area is considered short. The teachers had to drive three…

By Tariro Washinyira Trade union federations have rejected proposals by the National Treasury and the Presidency for alternative grants to replace the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. The proposals, dated July 2022 by the Presidency and August 2022 by the National Treasury, include a targeted job-seeker grant and a caregiver grant to replace the R350-a-month SRD grant. An untargeted grant, such as a universal Basic Income Grant, is rejected as being too expensive. In a statement, the South Africa Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) dismissed the proposals. The union said as many as 62% of current beneficiaries of the SRD grant would be excluded from the…

By Mosima Rafapa It has been a year since GroundUp visited train stations in Mamelodi Gardens, Pienaarspoort, Greenview and Denneboom. The stations were badly vandalised and unkept. PRASA, at the time, said these stations would be operating by March 2022 but it would appear that work only began in May this year. Many of the informal traders who relied on business from train commuters say they are battling to make ends meet. The deadline set by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) for when trains will be fully operational in Pretoria has come and gone. It’s been a year…

By Joseph Chirume Zimbabweans who have returned to their old country after working and studying for years in South Africa are battling to rebuild their lives.  Most were forced to make the move because of the South African government’s announcement that after 12 years it is now scrapping the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP). Returnees we spoke to have good memories of life in South Africa, the friends and places they have left behind, and the plans they had for their children’s futures. “It is painful to leave a place you have heavily invested in, and to be forced back into a country…

By Alex Densmore South Africa faces a power generation crisis. Directly related to this crisis is a chronic need for clean and safe power in informal settlements. Approximately two million households live in communities without formal grid connections.  As highlighted in GroundUp’s recent article on the Umbane project, sustaining affordable energy services in these off-grid settlements is extremely difficult, especially without any ongoing subsidy support from government. But it appears the article has generated misconceptions about our approach, and we therefore feel it important to draw attention to the broader situation and efforts to address it, while also contextualising our own challenges so…

By James Stent 1. Revenue from train fares has plummeted while the state subsidy has skyrocketed Nothing quite conveys the disastrous state of PRASA like graph 1 below. What it shows is this: In 2008, PRASA collected R1.2-billion in fares (blue line). Thirteen years later, in 2021, it collected R178-million. Yet over that period PRASA’s government funding (green line) mushroomed. Its operating subsidy ballooned from R2.6-billion to R8.8-billion. Its capital subsidy grew from R282-million to R2.9-billion (with a high of R4.3-billion in 2019/2020). In the graph, total revenue looks healthy. But PRASA includes the money that it receives from the government…

By Ashraf Hendricks As Metrorail’s service in Cape Town has deteriorated, one train has consistently run on time and safely for over 60 years: the Mini Blue Train in Mouille Point. On Wednesday, about 30 protesters from activist groups #UniteBehind held a protest at this train to highlight the breakdown of commuter rail.  To date, there have been no major reports of corruption, theft or arson at the Mini Blue Train. At R35, the five-minute train ride is a little expensive — perhaps because there’s no government subsidy — and the circular track leaves you where you started, but that’s still…

By Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik Qandu Qandu informal settlement residents in Khayelitsha say they have feel duped by a project that pairs a solar energy company with the Umbane project led by professors at UCT and Exeter University. The participants say they cannot afford the monthly usage fees for solar power in addition to the installation fees. They also claim they were promised start-up funding for businesses and they are now stuck with solar appliances they bought and cannot afford to run. Shack dwellers in Qandu Qandu informal settlement in Khayelitsha are unhappy and disillusioned by an empowerment initiative, the Umbane project, which…