Programme News
13 September 2013
(News)
While the Department of Home Affairs compiles the National Population Register, rooting out duplicate or fraudulent ID documents, concerns have arisen that measures to “block” these may leave hundreds of thousands of innocent South Africans stateless.
Khadija Patel spoke to Lawyers for Human Rights about the implications.
Lampposts across the country are being readied for their...
12 September 2013
(News)
Special Assignment investigates the rising tensions between communities within the platinum belt and the mining corporations - over the use and availability of water.
We visit the platinum mines from Marikana to the north western side of the Pilanesberg in Motlhabe village, with their rapidly urbanising communities, and examine the consequences of wall-to-wall mining applications on the supply...
10 September 2013
(News)
The Baphiring community in North West could yet have land that they were dispossessed of restored to them after a ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday.
The court set aside the Land Claims Court judgment of 2010 that the restoration of the land to the community was "not feasible".
It also held that the state was obliged to lead evidence regarding the cost of restoration...
8 September 2013
(News)
People who were relocated from the village of Ga-Pila in Mokopane, formerly Potgietersrus, are accusing mining giant Anglo Platinum (Amplats) of a litany of broken promises.
Amplats asked the villagers to make way for a mining dump. They were shifted to the nearby Sterkwater.
Now they say Amplats short-changed them on the relocation fee and failed to provide them with services they promised...
6 September 2013
(Press release)
In a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal on land claims, the court today upheld the appeal of the Baphiring community of the North West.
Lawyers for Human Rights have welcomed the judgment. The Baphiring community, who bought some 7 500 hectares of land near Koster between 1908 and 1913, were forcibly removed from their land during Apartheid under the 1913 Native Land Act. The...
30 August 2013
(News)
Organisations Advocates for Transformation and Lawyers for Human Rights have stressed the importance of the new National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head being scandal free.
Chairperson Dumisa Ntsebeza said it would be an error of judgment for someone with an outstanding complaint against them to be appointed.
“It is important that a person is not only independent, but is seen to be...
30 August 2013
(News)
Prospecting for one of the world's largest platinum mines has already taken farming land from a Limpopo community.
Their future is uncertain and people are getting angrier about living in limbo
In 1994, most South Africans opened the gates to freedom. In that year, Frank Mofokeng* lost his ancestral plot and his only source of income.
One morning he woke up and walked the few kilometres to...
30 August 2013
(News)
South Africa's legal fraternity and victims of crime are waiting to see whether President Jacob Zuma will appoint a new head to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) by his own deadline of Friday.
Last month, Zuma promised the Constitutional Court he would make an appointment by the end of August, after leaving the post vacant for almost a year.
It’s been claimed Zuma wants to...
30 August 2013
(News)
Prospecting for one of the world's largest platinum mines has already taken farming land from a Limpopo community.
Their future is uncertain and people are getting angrier about living in limbo
In 1994, most South Africans opened the gates to freedom. In that year, Frank Mofokeng* lost his ancestral plot and his only source of income.
One morning he woke up and walked the few kilometres to...
19 August 2013
(News)
The plight of thousands of people from across Africa, dispossessed of their land to make way for commercial activity, is to be discussed in the Pan African Parliament.
The issue first came up at a two-day hearing at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, during the continent's first ever land grab rights hearings on Thursday and Friday.
Highlighting the plight of hundreds of Limpopo people, Brand...