Tag: Gauteng
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Shifting travel habits: Gauteng residents are spending more
People in Gauteng are spending much more on transport than they did in 2017, according to a province-wide survey by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO).
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Rushed and chaotic: The Life Esidimeni tragedy, in charts
In September 2015, the Gauteng department of health decided to end a contract with Life Esidimeni, a group of specialised private psychiatric care hospitals. The decision was part of a wider plan to deinstitutionalise mental healthcare users in the province by placing them into non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in communities. It was also to cut costs. What transpired was a poorly planned,…
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Death trap: Timeline of the Life Esidimeni tragedy
Life Esidimeni, a psychiatric hospital, had been contracted for 30 years by the Gauteng department of health for the long-term, specialised care of mental healthcare patients. Despite warnings from experts, the department ended the contract in September 2015. Its aim was to deinstitutionalise the patients and save costs by moving them to non-profit organisations. What…
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SA’s mayoral churn: 3+ mayors in 3 years for these 15 municipalities
Although coalitions may be relatively new at a national level, local municipalities are all too familiar with the idea of power sharing. Almost one-third of South Africa’s municipalities had no party with an outright majority after the 2021 local government elections so were run by coalition agreements. Of the 213 local municipalities and metros, 71 had…
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Despite rising crime rate, SA has dire shortage of forensic experts
South Africa should ideally have 330 forensic pathologists, an expert says. Instead there are only about 50 working in the public sector.
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Eight days of protests and looting that shook South Africa
For just over a week in July 2021 chaos reigned in two provinces, sparked by the imprisonment of South Africa’s former president, Jacob Zuma. We collected tens of thousands of social media posts from Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook posted by ordinary people and media outlets between 8 and 16 July to try to…