All news items
29 May 2015
The Constitutional Court heard a case on Thursday which will determine how a valuable area of land in the North West province — which covers a portion of the Pilanesburg game reserve and, according to community leaders, sits on rich platinum deposits — will be administered.
The case has wider implications for the future of communal property associations — one of the legal...
28 May 2015
You would imagine, wouldn’t you, that once the court battles over a land claim were sorted out and an award was made returning the land to the people who originally lived on it, their legal troubles would be over.
Surely this would start a constructive new era for the community concerned and they could build a new life for themselves and their families? It turns out, however, that this is a...
28 May 2015
A dispute between a community and their chief over who should own their land has brought into sharp focus the tensions between traditional governance structures and constitutional law.
The Bakgatla-Ba-Khafela community in the North West—comprising 32 villages—is at loggerheads with their chief over who should hold the rights to the land they were granted following a successful land...
23 May 2015
Unnatural deaths, public searches of bodies stripped naked, torture, overcrowding, violence, and a rampant spread of tuberculosis all run counter to the new set of guidelines on fair treatment for prisoners adopted by the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on Friday, which they have named the Mandela Rules.
The world forum also declared that Nelson Mandela...
21 May 2015
Municipal Mayors and even Provincial Premier's could face jail time if their departments fail to comply with court orders. This is in terms of a ground-breaking decision by the Constitutional Court which paves the way for state functionaries to be held personally liable for the enforcement of court orders.
11 May 2015
As lawyers for human rights demand access to more than 200 illegal immigrants arrested on Friday, government has denied that joint raids being carried out by the army, police and Home Affairs officials, are targeting foreigners.
Operation Fiela was launched during xenophobic attacks in different parts of the country several weeks ago.
So far, more than 700 people have been arrested during various...
11 May 2015
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) say they are being denied access to more than 200 foreign nationals arrested during a raid on the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg this weekend.
235 people were arrested for being in the country illegally during a raid in the city center on Friday morning and lawyers for human rights says Home Affairs has denied its request to visit them as it is still...
8 May 2015
South Africa is often branded as a country with a high incarceration rate. In certain respects, this is true. For with 290 people per 100 000 imprisoned, it has the highest incarceration rate in Africa. But there is much more to prison population rates than a national headcount of bodies behind bars.
About two-thirds of the South African prison population have been sentenced to prison. The...
6 May 2015
The Department of Home Affairs has presented a number of reasons why it believed the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA’s) order that it must reopen the Port Elizabeth refugee reception office by July 1 was incorrect.
The department has applied to the Constitutional Court to set aside the SCA’s order made on March 25.
Refugee reception offices provide services to those who want to...
6 May 2015
A Supreme Court of Appeal order that it the Port Elizabeth refugee reception office be reopened by July 1 is incorrect and an unwarranted intrusion into the executive domain, says the Department of Home Affairs.
The department has applied to the Constitutional Court to set aside the court’s order made on March 25.
Refugee reception offices provide services to those who want to apply for...