Programme News
2 July 2012
(News)
TOMORROW the 17000 residents of Carolina, Mpumalanga, backed by Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre, will apply for an urgent court order giving Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and six other officials, a month to explain what has been done to supply the town with water services.
Last month, the North Gauteng High Court ruled the Department of Basic...
19 June 2012
(News)
SOUTH Africa is getting two-thirds fewer applications for asylum than a few years ago, but researchers say officials make such bad decisions that the whole system is now meaningless. Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials are so biased and administratively unfair that asylum-seekers are systematically rejected, resulting in an asylum system which “functions solely as an instrument...
19 June 2012
(Press release)
World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations to honour the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes under threat of persecution, conflict and violence. On the eve of World Refugee Day in South Africa hundreds of refugees, asylum seekers, citizens and residents alike converged on the Marabastad refugee office to show their...
13 June 2012
(Press release)
Violent riots further affirm the need to protect the right to health at Lindela—yet Home Affairs idles. On 28 May 2012, a group of organisations wrote to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to request that it urgently investigate the state of health and health care service provision at Lindela Repatriation Centre (Lindela). Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF),...
13 June 2012
(Press release)
The South African Human Rights Commission has been receiving numerous complaints about the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Gauteng. The Commission has been monitoring the situation closely. The Commission responded to the riot at the Lindela Repatriation centre on Monday by sending a monitoring team to visit the facility on Tuesday morning. The team engaged in discussions...
13 June 2012
(News)
The Legal Resources Centre and Lawyers for Human Rights to assess the situation on Saturday, as Carolina residents remain without safe drinking water. WATER Affairs Minister Edna Molewa could face litigation from two of SA’s foremost human rights organisations over a Mpumalanga town’s continued lack of drinkable water.About 17000 people in the Carolina area have been without safe...
11 June 2012
(News)
Court nod for them to build in posh area: GROUP of informal dwellers living in a shanty town in Moreleta Park, informally known as Plastic View, has won the right not to only stay – but to build houses in one of the city’s most affluent areas.
PICTURE: PHILL MAGAKOE Squatters in Moreleta Park have been given the nod to build homes in one of the most affluent areas of the city,...
8 June 2012
(News)
The Department of Home Affairs must come up with urgent and meaningful measures to put an end to the ill treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, the SA Human Rights Commission said on Thursday.The recommendations come after the SAHRC launched another investigation into reports of an alleged protest which was staged by refugees at the Lindela Repatriation Centre on Monday.It was reported...
3 June 2012
(Press release)
Corruption Watch (CW) and the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) have filed a joint application for leave to intervene as co-applicants in Part B of the matter of Freedom Under Law v National Director of Public Proseuctions, case No. 26912/2012 brought in the North Gauteng High Court. In addition to the grounds of challenge raised in the principal application, the application brought by the SJC...
18 May 2012
(Press release)
The Eastern Cape High Court has refused to grant the Department of Home Affairs leave to appeal a decision which held that they may not close the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office. The High Court delivered its judgment on the 14th May. This was in response to an application by Home Affairs to appeal an order which directed them to re-open the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office. The...