All news items
1 April 2015
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's call for all foreign nationals to be kicked out of the country has landed him in hot water with the SA Human Rights Commission.
The commission said yesterday it had received a formal complaint against the Zulu monarch.
Zwelithini reportedly said at the weekend that the fact that certain countries played a role in the country's struggle for liberation "...
27 March 2015
The Supreme Court of Appeal has severely criticised Home Affairs for ignoring repeated court orders and gave the department until 1 July to reopen the refugee reception office (RRO) in Port Elizabeth.
The court also ordered Home Affairs director general Mkuseli Apleni to report in writing once a month to the Somali Association of South Africa and the Project for Conflict Resolution and...
25 March 2015
The municipality agreed to establish a township next to Plastic View, but this would be only for those who qualified for low-cost housing.
In a case that is likely to grapple with the questions of how cash-strapped municipalities should allocate land for low-cost housing, a group of residents in Pretoria East has managed to temporarily halt the auctioning off of the land on which they live.
On...
25 March 2015
In apartheid South Africa, any white person was entitled to stop a black person and demand that they produce their pass book, which every black person over the age of 16 was required to carry. These pass books were known as dompas, which translates literally as “stupid pass”. The belittling and degrading documents were a means to control the movement of Africans in an appallingly...
25 March 2015
The scale - and cost - of the task of sorting out and settling restitution claims is staggering.
For those familiar with the mid-1990s land restitution programme, there was a strong sense of déjà vu about press reports on the reopened process: hopeful claimants queuing up to lodge claims, diligent officials working hard to assist them, optimistic managers talking up the systems that...
24 March 2015
Tuesday’s auction of the City of Tshwane’s land parcels may proceed as planned, but without Woodlane Village, the so-called Plastic View informal settlement.
Lawyers for Human Rights, on behalf of residents, successfully obtained an urgent High Court order against the Tshwane municipality on Monday afternoon.
Judge Legodi Phatudi found that auctioning off the property without a plan...
23 March 2015
The High Court in Pretoria will rule later today if it should stop the Tshwane Municipality from selling off municipal land, including the notorious Plastic View informal settlement in the East of Pretoria, on a public auction.
Plastic View, also known as Woodlane Village, is amongst the over 70 municipal properties destined to be sold in auction on Tuesday morning. Today Lawyers for Human Rights...
12 March 2015
In a precedent-setting case, the Pretoria High Court has given asylum seekers the right to challenge a fine imposed on them.
The court yesterday heard an urgent application by Janvier Mutoshiwa, an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who with the help of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) asked the court to compel the Department of Home Affairs to allow him to contest his fine.
Up...
6 March 2015
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the South African NGO Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Mozambican Mine Workers Association (AMIMO) are working together to find sustainable solutions for migrant mineworkers and their families to access the social security benefits they are entitled, including healthcare, pension schemes and worker compensation.
There are a range of...
5 March 2015
This week Urban Joburg and CityAfrika hosted an open discussion on the City of Johannesburg’s Operation KeMalao ‘It’s the law’. The by-law enforcement operation triggered by the City’s Public Safety office targets all traders and beggars operating at traffic intersections.
Ke Molao follows on from the department’s previously notorious operation Clean Sweep,...