Programme News
16 March 2011
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights have served letters on the Tshwane Municipality and the South African Police Service (Saps) demanding they come clean on plans for Schubart Park. Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa told Eyewitness News at the State of the City Address, last week, that they plan on clearing out the inner city slum within the next two weeks.
The...
15 March 2011
(News)
The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development
Minister Jeff Radebe
14 March 2011
...
14 March 2011
(Press release)
From the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults remain on the statute books in more than 70 countries. They are an affront to principles of equality and non-discrimination and fuel hatred and violence—in effect giving homophobia a State-sanctioned seal of approval. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay,...
9 March 2011
(Press release)
After a long absence from Court, the matter of the Moutse Demarcation Forum and others v. President of the Republic of South Africa and others (case number: CCT 40 / 2008) will be heard before the Constitutional Court tomorrow, Thursday 10 March 2011.
Moutse is located near the present-day borders of Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. During the negotiations for province...
3 March 2011
(Press release)
LAWYERS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PRESS RELEASE
3 MARCH 2011
Lawyers for Human Rights (“LHR”) wishes to express its shock at media reports that members of SAPS’ Crime Intelligence Unit have raided the Office of the Public Protector in Pretoria. This raid appears to have been an attempt by police officers to gain access to documents related to the recent report condemning...
2 March 2011
(News)
Business Day I Ernest MabuzaI Residents angry that state has delayed the finalisation of its demarcation case
AN AFFIDAVIT filed by Moutse residents in the Constitutional Court sets out how the state has delayed the finalisation of its demarcation case since 2008. The residents in the once cross- boundary municipality between Mpumalanga and Limpopo will once again — as in the 2009...
1 March 2011
(News)
It was a stifling 35 degrees when we arrived in Musina, the kind of dry, dusty heat that makes every movement slow, even when you think you should be in a hurry. But then there is no need to dawdle in a border town.
It was my first time in Musina and Grace's* fourth. The first time she crossed the border was in January 2002. She was 16 years old and her half-sister, Thuli, who had arrived in...
11 February 2011
(Press release)
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria handed down judgment today in which it criticised the Department of Home Affairs’ practice of arresting and detaining asylum seekers without verifying their status or allowing access to the refugee system.
The court held that “(i)t is simply untenable in a constitutional democracy that someone should have to give up their liberty...
28 January 2011
(Press release)
The Immigration Amendment Bill has been introduced to streamline the procedures of the Department of Home Affairs. The Bill seeks to encourage legal immigration by inter alia rationalising the permitting system, revising the requirements for a business visa and introducing a new critical skills category.
The objects of the Bill include the amendment of the Immigration Act, 2002 (Act...
28 January 2011
(Press release)
The Bill is, at best, a partial response to the need to address informal settlement conditions in Limpopo. In focussing on “elimination” and “control” at the expense of upgrading, rapid release of appropriately located land and positive measures to cater for new migrants to urban centres, the Bill does little to address the needs of people currently living in informal...