Programme News
25 September 2014
(News)
The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has noted the findings of the South African Human Rights Commission into violation of access to healthcare at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. The findings follow a South Gauteng High Court judgment that the detention practices at the centre were illegal and unconstitutional.
The committee is concerned that the centre is turning into a place of human rights...
25 September 2014
(Press release)
Civil Society Organisations respond to the SAHRC Investigation into alleged human rights infringements and reduced access to health care at the Lindela Repatriation Centre and demand that the South African Government act on the recommendations to hold those responsible for implementation to account.
On 18 September 2014, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) released a report...
23 September 2014
(News)
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba must ensure his staff knows the law applying to immigrants and deportations, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled on Tuesday.
Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann referred Gigaba to a previous Constitutional Court ruling involving the deportations of two Botswana nationals.
The court had found it was unlawful for the department to deport or surrender a...
19 September 2014
(News)
The South African Human Rights Commission has released its findings of an investigation into violations of access to health for detainees at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. The Commission’s investigation was in response to a complaint from non-governmental organisations, Medecins Sans Frontiers, Section 27, Lawyers for Human Rights, People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty, raising...
19 September 2014
(Press release)
Judgment in the matter of Samotse and another v Minister of Home Affairs and others was reserved today in the North Gauteng High Court. The Court said that judgment will be handed down on Tuesday 23 September 2014 at 10am.
Legal Aid South Africa and Lawyers for Human Rights are seeking an order declaring the deportation of Edwin Samotse to face the death penalty in...
18 September 2014
(Press release)
The matter of Samotse v Minister of Home Affairs and others, challenging the deportation of a Botswana national to face charges where the Government of Botswana refused to give assurances that the death penalty would not be imposed, has been stood down until Thursday 18 September 2014 at 10am on the urgent roll of the North Gauteng High Court.
Mr Samotse was deported from South Africa on 13...
17 September 2014
(Press release)
Somali Association of South Africa & 5 Others v Limpopo Department of Economic Development, the Environment and Tourism and 9 Others
Lawyers for Human Rights appeared in the Supreme Court of SA on 16th September to appeal the dismissal of the case that challenged the unlawful closure of refugee and asylum-seeker traders’ informal businesses by the police. The challenge comes in the...
16 September 2014
(Press release)
Press statement: Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment – Mokopane Communities in the dark about benefits from Ivanplats’ BBBEE transaction
Canadian mining giant Ivanhoe Mines has announced that its subsidiary Ivanplats (Pty) Ltd (previously known as Platreef Resources (Pty) Ltd) has finalised a broad-based black economic-empowerment (BBBEE) deal, giving 20 local host...
16 September 2014
(News)
Arms deal critics Hennie Van Vuuren, Andrew Feinstein and Paul Holden, who withdrew in protest from appearing as witnesses are being subpoenaed to appear before the Arms Procurement Commission.
The three activists announced they were withdrawing their participation in August, as they said the commission was failing to fully investigate the arms deal “without fear and favour.”
A...
11 September 2014
(News)
Our Home Affairs department has recently been in the news for its valiant attempts to keep people out of South Africa. Now, it’s suddenly in the news for throwing them out illegally. That may not matter to many South Africans: if someone gets deported home, good riddance, they may say. But in the case of Edwin Samotse, it’s literally a matter of life and death. He was...