In the media
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6 August 2013
Business Day
An affidavit by Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti on the state’s intended purchase of the MalaMala Game Reserve makes it clear the purchase price will be negotiated with the owners based on figures presented to the Land Claims Court.
Mr Nkwinti was reported to have already settled to pay the owners the full market price of R1bn, creating fears that the deal could set a benchmark, making future land restoration unaffordable. MalaMala is an upmarket game reserve in Mpumalanga.
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4 August 2013
The Sunday Times
The government has agreed to pay out more than R1-billion to settle a land claim against one of South Africa's most exclusive game lodges, the five-star Mala Mala reserve in Mpumalanga.
The deal between Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti and multimillionaire lodge owner Michael Rattray will wipe out a vast chunk of the national Land Claims Commission budget for the year. The system was set up to restore white-owned land to black South Africans forcibly dispossessed under apartheid, but this huge deal could result in a major setback for land reform throughout South Africa.
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28 July 2013
City Press
South Africa’s top advocates are raking in millions, sparking concerns that the conferral of senior counsel status is “tantamount to a licence to print money”.
Several senior advocates and lawyers who spoke to City Press said South Africa’s top advocates charge as much as R45 000 per day.
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24 July 2013
Business Day
Foreign traders who run spaza shops in Limpopo on Tuesday asked the North Gauteng High Court for an order enabling them to operate in the province.
The asylum seekers and refugees claimed they were being deliberately prevented from running businesses in Limpopo.
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24 July 2013
Pretoria News
Foreign traders from Limpopo turned to the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, claiming that they were being targeted and discriminated against by the police and the local authorities who were forcing them to close their businesses.
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14 July 2013
City Press
Parliament’s plans to allow advocates to deal directly with the public will “obliterate” the advocates profession and be the single most anti-transformative measure “ever to happen in the legal profession”.
This is the opinion of Advocate Ishmael Semenya, the chairperson of the General Council of the Bar, in his general chairman’s report, which was released last month.
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11 July 2013
Africa Check
Does South Africa currently receive the “highest annual number of asylum applications worldwide”?
It is a claim that in recent weeks has been picked up and repeated, often verbatim, by various media outlets. For example, an SABC television interview with Home Affairs minister Naledi Pandor prior to World Refugee Day on 20 June was prefaced with an introduction stating that South Africa “continues to be the recipient of the highest annual number of asylum applications worldwide.” The minister did not contradict the claim during the interview.
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10 July 2013
ENCA online
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says an estimated 62 foreigners have been killed in South Africa this year between January and May.
This emerged during panel discussions at the annual Public Interest Law Gathering at the University of Witwatersrand.
UNHCR says an estimated 130 incidents of attacks on foreigners have been reported since the beginning of the year.
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10 July 2013
EWN
Prisons are more and more becoming havens for crime, drugs and violence because of corrupt officials and prisons being understaffed.
Talk Radio 702’s John Webb spoke to Acting Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Correctional Services Koos Gerber about the state and security of prisons.
The conversation was sparked by a report by Sowetan newspaper that ex-convict Tshepo Salim Masango of Mamelodi in Pretoria said he made “big money” smuggling drugs, guns and cell phones during the seven years he was incarcerated.
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26 June 2013
The New Age
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