Programme News
10 December 2011
(News)
REFUGEE lobby groups were in court yesterday challenging what they claimed was a decision by the Department of Home Affairs not to open a new refugee reception office in Johannesburg, after the Crown Mines office was closed by a court order. Yesterday’s case may be the first in a series of challenges on refugee reception offices. Accessibility to these offices is essential for the rights of...
9 December 2011
(News)
by Pierre De Vos
It is not surprising that section 26 of the Bill of Rights has become one of the sections most often invoked in cases being argued before the Constitutional Court. In a country in which many people do not have access to formal housing, one in which the property rights of some force many poor and destitute people to act in an unlawful manner, one in which such people often have...
9 December 2011
(News)
THE Constitutional Court yesterday ruled in favour of the occupiers of private land near Pretoria who would have been rendered homeless had their evictions been carried out without the City of Tshwane being ordered to provide alternative accommodation.
The cases involved two appeals against eviction judgments by the North Gauteng High Court. In the first judgment, the court ordered...
7 December 2011
(Press release)
Today the Constitutional Court delivered two unanimous judgments in favour of the occupants of Mooiplaats and Skurweplaas, located adjacent to the Itireling informal settlement in Pretoria. Lawyers for Human Rights acted on behalf of the occupiers who were to be rendered homeless, as a result of an eviction order granted by the North Gauteng High Court. Leave to appeal the High Court judgments...
6 December 2011
(Press release)
Today the Constitutional Court handed down a unanimous judgment in the matter of Nthabiseng Pheko and the Occupiers of Bapsfontein Informal Settlement versus the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. The Court found that the actions of the Municipality, in forcibly removing the residents of Bapsfontein Informal Settlement and demolishing their homes without a Court order, allegedly as a...
1 December 2011
(News)
IN A strongly worded judgment, the Supreme Court of Appeal has affirmed the principles governing legal protection for asylum seekers in SA and censured a high court acting judge for flouting the "fundamental rules of litigation". While the government has often come in for heavy criticism by the courts for how it handles immigrants and asylum seekers, it is unusual for a judge to...
15 November 2011
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is a leading human rights organisation with a 30 year track record of human rights activism and public interest litigation in South Africa. We offer lawyers an exciting and challenging work environment covering a wide range of human rights work, which includes refugee and migrant rights, land reform and housing, security of farm workers, child rights and...
2 November 2011
(News)
HARARE, 25 October 2011 (IRIN) - Doreen Sibanda, 27, was among the first undocumented Zimbabwean nationals to be deported in early October 2011 after South Africa apparently lifted its more than two year moratorium on expulsions imposed following widespread xenophobic violence in 2008.
“I was on my way to the shops to buy porridge for my four-year-old son when I was stopped by the...
1 November 2011
(News)
Hundreds of Zimbabwean asylum seekers who have been left exposed to arrest and detention following the expiry of their permits are being frustrated by corrupt personnel at the Department of Home Affairs.
Zimbabwean asylum seekers
Disgruntled asylum seekers who spoke to The Zimbabwean, most of them on condition of anonymity, said such officials were working in...
1 November 2011
(News)
The International Organisation for Migration has deplored the Zimbabwe government's tendency to detain asylum seekers in prison instead of speedily handing them to UN agencies for assistance.
In a report, the IOM said it had assisted 26 Somali and 74 Ethiopian asylum seekers relocate to Tongogara Refugee Camp after they languished for months at Harare remand prison with the United Nations...