Programme News
16 November 2009
(News)
Mamelodi hostel residents woke up to municipal contractors removing the roofs over their heads as their long drawn-out standoff with the Tshwane Metro Council took another turn yesterday.
According to the residents, they were not warned beforehand that the contractors would be removing the roofs, and all of them still had their possessions inside the unit.
The remaining Mamelodi hostels are in...
4 November 2009
(Press release)
In the late hours of 3 July 2009, some 350 destitute and homeless people were arrested for “loitering” in central Johannesburg. As they had nowhere else to go, they had been sleeping in the vicinity of the Central Methodist Mission (“the Church”). As part of “Operation Chachamela”, which effectively targets the destitute and homeless in...
1 November 2009
(News)
What will follow the Minister’s visit to Lindela?
The Minister’s recent visit to the Lindela Repatriation Centre (“Immigrants at Lindela on the Decrease”, The Star, 18th November)—where foreign nationals are detained pending deportation—was a welcome step in her commitment to reform the Department of Home Affairs. The Minister highlighted...
28 August 2009
(News)
August 30, 2009 marks the 26th anniversary of the International day of the Disappeared. On this day families of disappeared persons all over the world commemorate their loves ones. They are joined by human rights organisations, lawyers, journalists, government officials and many others. South Africa has still not signed this convention. Lawyers for Human Rights calls on the Minister of...
16 August 2009
(News)
South Africa is considering the introduction of zero tolerance policing ahead of next year's football World Cup, making it easier for officers to "shoot to kill" suspected criminals. The proposal has raised fears of a return to "apartheid-era policing", with officers having the right to shoot fleeing suspects in the back. The change in tone has come with the...
12 August 2009
(News)
Cynthia, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo to find safety in this country a year ago, says: "I don't want to live in South Africa too long; I am so scared for my little boy." She arrived in June when the countrywide xenophobia attacks had ended, but says even today she is scared to speak to her child when he cries in a taxi, because he only understands French and she has been...
28 July 2009
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights has been actively monitoring the situation in Balfour and is gravely concerned by the indiscriminate violence which occurred last week in that community. Foreign nationals were particularly targeted by some members of the community. LHR has, however, also learned of widespread violence by police against protesters as well as against community members not involved in the...
16 July 2009
(Press release)
The South Gauteng High Court today ruled that the deportation of an asylum seeker by the Department of Home Affairs was unlawful, unconstitutional, and invalid, and ordered the Department to pay for and facilitate his return to South Africa. The asylum seeker, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, was unlawfully deported on 10 May, 2009—two days before he was to appear in court to...
13 July 2009
(News)
Destitute people who were arrested while sleeping outside the Methodist Church in central Joburg a week ago say police beat them, insulted them, gave them electric shocks and stole their belongings.
Joburg metro police and SAPS members arrested 358 homeless people, mostly Zimbabweans, late at night on July 3. They were due to appear in court last Monday on charges of loitering, but were released...
13 July 2009
(News)
South African non-governmental organisations are on a collision course with government after the decision of the African Union not to co-operate with the International Criminal Court over the arrest of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.The organisations - including the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the International Centre for Transitional Justice, the Khulumani Support Group and Lawyers for...