In this issue

The Big Issue is a non-profit nongovernmental organisation (NGO) and Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) that publishes a general interest monthly magazine which focuses on the big social issues of the day. The vendors who sell the magazine are self-employed micro-retailers.

Our Social Development Programme provides vendor support including vocational, life and business skills training and guidance counselling.

The Big Issue aims to actively encourage and equip vendors to “move on” from the project into mainstream society.

Cynthia Gogotya

The Big Issue vendor Cynthia Gogotya is a role model to her family, community and fellow vendors. She shares her experiences of the last three months.

3 mins

Leslie Pearson

Over the past 18 months, life has been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride for Big Issue vendor Leslie Pearson. The veteran vendor tells us about some of his experiences.

3 mins

Wanted: Partnerships that effect change

COVID-19 is pushing available services to the limit and testing a fragile interdependent and complex system, writes Zahid Badroodien, mayoral committee member for Community Services and Health at the City of Cape Town.

4 mins

How Will History Judge Us?

Adri Marais, CEO of Christel House South Africa, turns the spotlight on the fractures in South African society revealed by COVID-19, and explores feasible solutions to issues such as homelessness.

5 mins

Combatting Homelessness

Does business, through its corporate social investment and community programmes, have a role to play in combatting homelessness? Eric Atmore, director of the Centre for Early Childhood Development, delves into this question.

4 mins

A hopeful exchange

Cape Town’s The Hope Exchange began in the 1980s as The Carpenter’s Shop, offering homeless people carpentry training and a hot meal. Founder member and chairman of Maynards Office Technology, Geoff Burton shares this social enterprise’s remarkable journey.

4 mins

How Can We Serve You Better?

Elaine Brass, CEO of the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA), shares the entity’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lessons it has learnt in the midst of this crisis.

4 mins

The Power Of Co-Creation

Stanley Henkeman, Executive Director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, delves into the power of co-creating a better future as South Africans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown.

4 mins

Let's narrow SA's education gap

Learners are facing huge educational losses due to disruptions from COVID-19. Novus Print Executive Steve Thobela discusses how paper-based learning can help learners get back on their feet.

3 mins

From Durban to Bombay

Ebrahim Essa’s satirical memoir tackles questions of identity and belonging from the vantage point of a first-generation South African Indian living in Durban at the beginning of apartheid, and in Bombay, shortly after India’s independence.

3 mins

Read all stories from Big Issue

Big Issue Magazine Description:

The Big Issue is a non-profit nongovernmental organisation (NGO) and Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) that publishes a general interest monthly magazine which focuses on the big social issues of the day. The vendors who sell the magazine are self-employed micro-retailers.

Our Social Development Programme provides vendor support including vocational, life and business skills training and guidance counselling.

The Big Issue aims to actively encourage and equip vendors to “move on” from the project into mainstream society.