PUBLISHED BY: Daily Maverick WRITTEN BY: Jonathan West and Thato Gaffane Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue in South Africa – it is undermining constitutional rights by disrupting access to education, healthcare and other essential services. As floods become more frequent and severe, the government must urgently Continue Reading
As Child Protection Week draws to a close, SECTION27 has launched a new report, Protecting the Future Today: The Need for an Efficient National Child Protection Register to Curb Violence Against Children. The report reveals serious shortcomings in the implementation of the National Child Protection Register (NCPR), undermining its ability Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: City Press WRITTEN BY: Matshidiso Lencoasa This week, the state of the nation address (SONA) once again takes centre stage, setting our government’s vision of the year ahead. For most South Africans, the state of our nation is experienced through public services. Daily encounters with schools, clinics and Continue Reading
By: Kholofelo Mphahlele In the rural stretches of the Limpopo Province, along gravel roads where opportunity often feels distant, 24 young learners from Burghersdorp Secondary School completed their National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations at the end of 2025. These learners had worked tirelessly, often against the odds, dreaming of higher education, jobs, and a Continue Reading
By: Emihle Majikija The transition from primary to secondary school often brings new possibilities, hopes, and beginnings for a learner. In November of 2024, Zethu* received news that her granddaughter, Gugu*, had been provisionally accepted into the 2025 Grade 8 class at Hyde Park High School – a fee-paying public school in the leafy, affluent suburbs of Sandton, north of Johannesburg. Zethu let out a sigh of relief. Unlike Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: News24 WRITTEN BY: Matshidiso Lencoasa Earlier this month, the class of 2025 delivered record matric results, gifting the country a moment of collective pride where young people’s stories are too often characterised by hardship. Not a single district in the top-performing KwaZulu-Natal recorded a pass rate below 85%. Continue Reading
WRITTEN BY: Jonathan West The climate crisis is no longer looming on the horizon; it is a dark storm cloud sitting above our heads. From relentless heatwaves to unprecedented floods, the signs are all around us, growing more urgent by the day. These extreme weather events are not just environmental Continue Reading
21 May 2025, Johannesburg – Budget 3.0, the first presented under the Government of National Unity (GNU), marks a significant shift from years of harsh austerity. While not without gaps, this budget reflects pressure from communities and civil society to put the people of South Africa at the centre of Continue Reading
19 May 2025, Johannesburg – On 21 May 2025 civil society organisations Blind SA, SECTION27, Recreate SA, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (“SADTU”), the South African Guild of Actors (“SAGA”), the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA), Right 2 Know, Wikimedia South Africa and more will picket Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: Daily Maverick WRITTEN BY: Mahfouz Raffee and Matshidiso Lencoasa More than 23,000 posts in education departments have been cut, and now our classrooms are paying the price for austerity. Budget 3.0 will be tabled on 21 May 2025 — a historic moment for our nation’s democracy, which had Continue Reading
By: Benni Mudau The South African Constitution guarantees that every child has the right to access basic education. However, for siblings Lebogang* and Tebatso Ngcobo* – grade eight and ten learners respectively – from the New Horizon College, a private school in Harrismith in the Free State, this right was Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: Daily Maverick WRITTEN BY: Mduduzi Nkosi and Matshidiso Lencoasa Civil society has consistently advocated for ways to expand public spending without deepening debt or burdening the poor. Now, the challenge is political will. In such a volatile economic climate, leaders must seize this moment to craft a Budget Continue Reading
