Programme News
10 April 2013
(News)
A sewerage plant supplying the community of Rockville, north of Pretoria, is leaking. But its reconstruction is being contested in court.
The community, through Lawyers for Human Rights, is in court because they say they were not consulted on the project and the plant began working before it had a water licence.
The current water plant was first built in 1983, when the community was still under...
10 April 2013
(News)
For the past 30 years, Karl Ammann shot his world-famous wildlife photography on a Nikon. At the weekend, he resorted to covertly snapping a picture with his BlackBerry in order to capture evidence of his detention and deportation from OR Tambo International Airport.
Although the Immigration Act allows for detention of up to 30 days and an additional 90 days with a warrant from the magistrate...
27 March 2013
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights is mourning the loss of former colleague and friend Andries Soja Legoabe who passed away on Sunday, 24 March 2013.
Legoabe was widely considered a warm, welcoming and lively colleague whose passion for equality and human rights was felt by everyone he came into contact with.
Legoabe worked for LHR for over 20 years before eventually retiring and although officially a...
27 March 2013
(Press release)
Statelessness is a reality for more than 12-million people around the world, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In absence of a system to identify and protect the stateless in South Africa, it will be challenging to obtain reliable figures on this population.
A stateless person is one who is not recognised as a national by any country. Stateless persons are not protected...
18 March 2013
(Press release)
The undersigned civil society organisations condemn in the strongest terms the arrest and continued detention of veteran Zimbabwean human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.
Mtetwa was arrested on Sunday, 17 March 2013, while attempting to provide legal assistance to Thabani Mpofu, Director of Research and Development in the Office of the Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, who was arrested...
16 March 2013
(News)
South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs will not extend the documentation exercise for Zimbabwean nationals living in South Africa, an official in the department has said.
In May 2009 South Africa suspended the deportation of undocumented Zimbabweans and later introduced a special dispensation under which Zimbabwean nationals were given an opportunity to regularise their stay in South...
9 March 2013
(News)
It is a matter of grave concern when judges ignore the laws of our country. Unfortunately, despite a significant improvement in South African law relating to evictions — through legislation and Constitutional Court decisions — the courts often fail to extend these protections to poor and vulnerable people.
Millions of South Africans do not have access to adequate housing....
4 March 2013
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on Friday added its voice in calling for an urgent investigation by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) into the death of Mozambican national Mido Macia — allegedly due to police brutality after being dragged behind a police vehicle and assaulted while in detention.
The taxi driver was found dead...
1 March 2013
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights has noted the death of Mozambican national Mido Macia - allegedly due to police brutality after being dragged behind a police vehicle and assaulted while in detention - with deep concern and calls for an urgent investigation by SAPS and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate into the matter.
The taxi driver was later found dead in the holding cells of the...
28 February 2013
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) said on Wednesday its to challenge the Department of Home Affairs’ closing of the Port Elizabeth refugee reception office would appear before the Eastern Cape High Court on Thursday.
LHR teamed up with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Refugee Rights Centre in representing the Somali Association of South Africa and the Project for Conflict...