In the media
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18 July 2015
Pretoria News
By relocating the so-called Plastic View informal settlement to a new plot alongside Garsfontein Road, east of the Woodlands Boulevard, the City of Tshwane will simply create another undesirable element for residents to put up with.
This is according to residents of the Pretoria east suburbs of Woodlands, Garsfontein, Moreleta Park and Mooikloof, who expressed concerns about the proposed relocation.
They were speaking during a public participation meeting on the environmental impact of the new development.
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17 July 2015
Times Live
An imprisoned rapist has been sentenced to 10 more years in jail for another three rapes‚ but he may not spend any more time behind bars in the end.
Magistrate Hleziphe Nkasibe said in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court in Johannesburg on Thursday that the sentence was sufficient in serving the purposes of retribution and rehabilitation.
Nkasibe was sentencing Jacob Mokoele‚ 35‚ who pleaded guilty to the rapes and to one charge of robbery.
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17 July 2015
Pretoria News
“I will go back and continue to write without fear or favour… Not because I am a hero, but because that is the right thing to do.”
These were the words of Bheki Makhubu, editor of The Nation magazine in Swaziland, following his recent release from prison.
On Thursday night Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) welcomed back the recently released Swazi human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko and Makhubu during a function held at LHR’s Pretoria office.
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13 July 2015
Times Live
Although the Department of Home Affairs claimed new visa regulations were needed to protect tens of thousands of children who were trafficked in South Africa, it now appears it was a gross exaggeration.
Home Affairs has for some time quoted a figure of 30,000 children being trafficked in or through South Africa annually to justify the draconian new visa regulations, which have the tourism industry up in arms.
The reality is that only 23 cases of child-trafficking have been uncovered in the past three years.
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11 July 2015
Times Live
Children seeking asylum will now be included in their caregiver’s application‚ regardless of whether they are biological relatives‚ Lawyers for Human Rights and the Centre for Child Law said.
This follows a ruling by the North Gauteng High Court on Thursday that all children entering South Africa with an relative applying for asylum will be a regarded as a dependent of the caregiver‚ just as biological children are.
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10 July 2015
News 24
The High Court in Pretoria has ruled that foreign children who enter South Africa with a relative who qualifies as an asylum seeker should be included as a dependent.
The ruling was made on Thursday, said Zita Hansungule of the Centre for Child Law in a statement.
"This gives the child immediate protection and ensures that they are not separated from people with whom they have a relationship," she said.
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4 July 2015
Eyewitness News
Lawyers for Human Rights says the case of a Nigerian man held in jail for two and a half months without being charged should make South Africans reflect on the police's Operation Fiela.
The Eastern Cape man has been awarded R750,000 by a court to compensate him for his ordeal.
According to reports the judge presiding over the case described it as the worst treatment she has seen in post-apartheid South Africa.
Operation Fiela was launched in April after a spate of xenophobic attacks and saw thousands of people arrested, including hundreds of illegal immigrants.
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1 July 2015
GroundUp
On 24 June the Pretoria High Court struck from the roll an application by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) that tried to put an urgent end to Operation Fiela. Lara Wallis explains why this is deeply concerning.
As Operation Fiela has swept through the country, it has violated the rights of many people, both South Africans and foreigners. LHR’s urgent application to interdict unlawful search and arrest raids in the course of Operation Fiela raised significant questions of law for those affected by the operation, as well as the wider public.
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2 November 2015
De Rebus
The Kutlwanong Democracy Centre was launched at the end of May. The centre is located at 357 Visagie Street in Pretoria.
The national director of Lawyers for Human Rights, Jacob van Garderen told De Rebus that the centre is a unique hub for civil society in Pretoria. He said it brings together a range of organisations working in human rights, social assistance and development.
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25 June 2015
The Times
An attempt to have the way Operation Fiela/Reclaim is executed declared unlawful will have to go through the normal court processes.This was the result on Tuesday when Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) brought an urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for an order declaring that some parts of the operation's application on the ground contravened the National Defence Act‚ the South African Police Service Act and the Immigration Act‚ as well people's constitutional right to privacy.
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