All news items
25 March 2009
Johannesburg - Conditions at a detention centre for illegal foreigners near Musina were appalling and the centre should be declared unlawful, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday. Acting judge Joseph Raulinga reserved judgment in an application by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) against the police and the ministers of Home Affairs and Social Development.
20 March 2009
ZIMBABWE’s government of national unity was too young for Zimbabweans in SA to start thinking of going back home, Patrick Matlou, CEO of the Africa Institute of SA, said yesterday. He said SA was compelled by international conventions, such as the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees and the old Organisation of African Union’s convention on refugees, to continue providing support...
20 March 2009
The UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has created a refugee crisis in Johannesburg, the Gauteng government said on Thursday 19 March 2009. Since February, the UNHCR has been providing transport for thousands of Zimbabwean refugees to come to Johannesburg — without informing the authorities — said the spokesperson for provincial department of local government Themba Sepotokele.
5 March 2009
Judgment was reserved today after the Constitutional Court heard argument on a family of Kenyan origin's challenge to the loss of their permanent citizenship. The court was hearing the case of asking for leave to appeal a Pretoria High Court decision. Wycliffe Simiyu Koyabe and his family
Koyabe arrived in South Africa in 1994 and was granted a work permit, but he and the others were arrested...
5 March 2009
Thousands of Zimbabwean refugees are stranded after authorities in South Africa moved to shut a camp sheltering them in the border town of Musina.The refugees had fled a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe and many hoped to seek political asylum in South Africa. The government said the refugees would be transferred to a military base, but aid officials criticised the move.Hollywood star Matt Damon, who...
26 February 2009
The Minister of Home Affairs has been ordered by thePretoria High Court to immediately release an asylum seeker from of theDemocratic Republic of the Congo who is being held at the Lindela HoldingFacility in Krugersdorp.
Max Boziss, 28, desperately tried to renew hisasylum seeker temporary permit, but long queues at the department prevented himfrom doing so in time. It was stated in court...
23 February 2009
IT HAS been nine months since a wave of xenophobic attacks swept across the country leaving 62 people dead in its wake. To date less than a tenth of the more than 1400 people arrested for the horrific crimes are behind bars.Civil rights groups maintain that the National Prosecuting Authority is not making enough progress in the prosecution of the suspects.
NPA spokesman Tlali...
10 February 2009
Lawyers fight to improve refugee facility
By Zelda Venter
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) are to approach the Pretoria High Court in a bid to force the government to improve conditions at a holding facility for refugees in Musina, or have it closed down. This follows the outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe, which has since spread to Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng. It is claimed conditions at the...
5 February 2009
January 24, 2009
By BARRY BEARAK
MUSINA, South Africa - They bear the look of street urchins, their eyes on the prowl for useful scraps of garbage and their bodies covered in clothes no cleaner than a mechanic's rags.
Near midnight, these Zimbabwean children can be found sleeping outside almost anywhere in this border city. A 12-year-old girl named No Matter Hungwe, hunched beneath the...
9 January 2009
Police say Albert Park ward councillor Vusi Khoza was arrested, apparently in connection with the robbery and assault of a man who lives in the area.He was arrested after it was alleged that he had accused a man of stealing a local woman's cellphone, according to police. The incident took place on Saturday, a day before locals attacked foreign nationals in the building.
Police spokesperson...