GroundUp is a South African-based

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

news agency. It publishes most content related to education, health, sanitation, immigration and human rights stories under a

creative commons license A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bu ...

and is known for its focus on public interest stories within vulnerable communities with a " bottom-up" style of reporting. Their content is regularly reprinted and featured in other South African news publications such as the ''

Daily Maverick ''Daily Maverick'' is an independent, South African, English language, online news publication and weekly print newspaper, with offices in the country's two most populous cities: Cape Town (the site of its headquarters) and Johannesburg. ...

'',

News24 News 24 may refer to: * News 24 (Albania), a 24-hour news television channel in Albania *News24 (website), a South Africa-based news website * Rai News24, a 24-hour news television channel in Italy *BBC News 24, now known as BBC News, a UK 24-hour n ...

, and ''

Mail & Guardian The ''Mail & Guardian'', formerly the ''Weekly Mail'', is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, loca ...

''.

History

GroundUp started in April 2012 as a joint project of Community Media Trust and the University of Cape Town's Centre for Social Science Research by Nathan Geffen, a computer scientist, researcher and former

Treatment Action Campaign The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is a South African HIV/AIDS activist organisation which was co-founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid backgro ...

member.

Reporting

The publication is known for exposing corruption within the

South African National Lottery The National Lottery is operated by ITHUBA Holdings, to whom the licence was awarded in 2015. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission and was established in 2000. Lottery tickets may be bought only by people of at least 18 ...

scheme. For this investigation, GroundUp editor Nathan Geffen and journalist Raymond Joseph were joint winners of the 2021 South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) Nat Nakasa award for courageous community journalism. Joseph went on to win the Vodacom Journalist of the Year and Taco Kuiper awards. In 2023, GroundUp reporters Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn investigated and exposed the prison escape of convicted rapist Thabo Bester, for which they were received the

Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity The Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity is an award presented to a South African media practitioner in newspapers, magazines, broadcasting and online print media and whose reporting celebrates freedom of speech and media integrity. The award i ...

and the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award in 2023.

References

Primary sources

These sources are published by ''GroundUp'', and are indicated in this article by a

double dagger A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

(‡):

Secondary sources

{{Reflist 2012 establishments in South Africa South African news websites Newspapers established in 2012 Mass media in Cape Town Online newspapers published in South Africa